Scotch Without an Age Number

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Elizabeth G Dunn, How to Lose Track of Time. You don’t have to choose Scotch by the numbers. Increasingly, distillers are dispensing with age statements and focusing on the many other factors that make their spirits sing. Wall Street Journal, Apr 25, 2015.
www.wsj.com/articles/6-no-age-st ... ime-over-1429901298

Excerpt in the window of print: While a number might be reassuring, age is an imprecise measure of quality.


Quote:

“after years of cultivating an almost pathological obsession with age among Scotch drinkers, distillers have begun to backpedal, emphasizing other aspects of the process that drive taste and value. ‘Now the industry has new mantras: It’s all about the quality of the wood used, or it’s all about the master distiller’s secrets,’ said Ian Buxton, the Scotch expert and author of ‘101 Legendary Whiskies.’

“After all, age statements started out as nothing more than a marketing gimmick: When single malts [meaning: unblended] were first widely exported in the 1960s (before that all the malt whisky made went into blended Scotch), age was touted in an effort to imply superiority over the blends that consumers were used to.

“Although whisky experts suspect that most age-free releases skew younger than their age-declared counterparts, that’s not necessarily indicative of lower quality, particularly at a time when distillers have more control than ever over blending and aging. ‘The industry’s scientific understanding of what exactly is happening inside the cask has come on immeasurably in the past 20 years,’ said Mr Buxton. ‘So there’s better choices of wood now and better management’

Note:
(a) The title in Google search return is: Why a Scotch's Age Doesn't Matter Anymore
(b) “IN SCOTCH AISLES across the country [US], a reformation is quietly under way. Among the stolid contingent of age-emblazoned single-malts—the Glenlivet 12, the Macallan 15, Talisker 18—a mysterious new crowd is creeping in, and their labels are defiantly numeral-free.”
(i) Glenlivet
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenlivet
(the glen in the Scottish Highlands through which the River Livet flows; "Glenlivet is known for * * * the whisky The Glenlivet")
(ii) The Macallan distillery
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Macallan_distillery
(iii) Talisker distillery
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talisker_distillery
(founders "acquired the lease of Talisker House from the MacLeod" clan)

(c) “Macallan is leading the charge, replacing its 10-, 12- and 15-year stalwarts in some markets with the 1824 Series, a quartet of bottlings differentiated by the whisky’s color (as well as its price).”
(i) Called “1824,” because that is the year The Macallan distillery was founded.
(ii) It is a “quartet,” because if you uses images.google.com for (Macallan 1824), you will see four kinds of bottlings (with different shades of orange) for the 1824 Series.