Listen to “Why Whiskey Bottling Dates are Important; Scotland” on Spreaker.
Listen to our Scottish friend James explain whiskey aging and bottling dates, why bottling dates are precisely tracked and what the “Angel’s Share” of whiskey is. Learn why it is such a big risk it is for whiskey distillers to go for that prized, high-value 50-year single malt whiskey.
QUOTES:
“..the Government official can then take the count of the literage that went through that day and then count the bottles. If they don’t add up, that whisky does not leave the distillery until they find the missing whisky.”
“A 10 year cask will lose a third of the contents of the barrel to evaporation. We refer to that as the Angel’s Share. It’s quite nice.”
“Hopefully I’ve lived a good enough life, I’ll become a whisky angel.”
“If they unearth a 50 year and it tests below 39.5% alcohol it will not be classed as a neat spirit, therefore it cannot be classed as single malt and you’ve just wasted 50 years.”
“So it can be, you know, quite a skill, quite an art to make the whisky.”
SHOW NOTES
A Midlife Traveler Podcast; Season 1 Scotland Speaks
EPISODE: Whiskey: Bottling Dates & Aging
Why is EVERY Bottle of Whiskey is stamped with the Day, Month & Year?
Every company, they have to do it by law. By duty and excise, because what happens is that before anything leaves the distillery a Government official will go into there and he will count the literage that’s under lock and key. That will be measured as in, say, one liter of whisky will weigh a kilo for example.
When that truck leaves the distillery it must go onto a weigh scale and if the weight is incorrect the Government will not allow that truck to leave, so everything is bottled and dated and stamped so that the Government official can then take the count of the literage that went through that day and then count the bottles. If they don’t add up, that whisky does not leave the distillery until they find the missing whisky.
So the bottling and the dating, it’s really a way for the Government to monitor what it has taxed, what it hasn’t taxed, and so on and so forth.
Whiskey Distillers Track Bottling Dates to Help Track Quality
It’s also for, quite specific to the Master Distiller. So every batch that goes out he will take a sample. Then, every new batch, he will check the coloration and the smell of all the older batches to make sure there’s not too much of a difference. So, it’s quite important to the Master Distiller that he knows when they were bottled. So it’s, there is a reason behind it.
It’s impressive to think something takes so long to produce.
A 10 year is normally the youngest that any distilleries will produce. Some do produce a five year, but not many. When a distillery is producing something like a 50 year, they’re taking a very big risk. A 10 year cask will lose a third of the contents of the barrel to evaporation. We refer to that as the Angel’s Share. It’s quite nice. Hopefully I’ve lived a good enough life, I’ll become a whisky angel.
So if a 10 year is losing a third of its cask to evaporation just imagine what you’re losing in a 50 year. So quite often out of a cask, a 50 year cask, the distiller will be lucky to get six bottles and it’s taken 50 years.
So it is quite a big risk that they take.
It doesn’t always, got, work in their favor, because what they do is, they bury the cask to stop the evaporation happening so much. Sometimes they’ll unearth it, the cask has broken and it’s all wasted and ruined. So it can be, you know, quite a skill, quite an art to make the whisky.
And, where he’s taking the big risk, is that as alcohol gets older, its potency reduces. If they unearth a 50 year and it tests below 39.5% alcohol it will not be classed as a neat spirit, therefore it cannot be classed as single malt and you’ve just wasted 50 years.
“So it can be, you know, quite a skill, quite an art to make the whisky.”