What do you do when demand is great and your supplies are low—or you have gaps in your production?
In other words, what are so many whisky companies doing right now?
They’re introducing new expressions without age statements. Just look at some of the recent releases: Laphroaig Quarter Cask, Tomintoul Peated, Ardmore Traditional, Longrow CV, Benromach Organic. All of these are whiskies with no age statements. Whiskies with no age statements allows the producer the most flexibility possible—much more than whiskies with a vintage, or even an age statement.
Why do this? Well, realizing both the existing and projected demand for whisky, along with supplies that won’t come close to meeting demand, whisky companies have been cranking up production. But it’s a long time before this spirit can become a 12, 15, or 18 year old expression.
What do you do in the meantime? You introduce a new expression with no age statement. This solves four problems for the whisky company:
- It introduces a new expression, creating excitement for the brand.
- It allows the company to begin using the stocks of whisky as young as three years old (the legal requirement), which they can blend in with older whiskies.
- It allows them to dance around gaps in production.
- It takes some of the pressure off of existing age-defined expressions which they know are, or will be, in short supply.
Of course, it’s not like this has never been done before. Remember Drumguish, which was the younger version of The Speyside whisky. Or how about Springbank CV, which came out when the distillery had really young whiskies and really old whiskies, but not much in the middle. And there was The Macallan Cask Strength, which was introduced after the distillery dropped the 15 year old expression(realizing that selling a 15 year old will delete 18 year old stocks three years later–duh!).
Now, I don’t expect companies to start putting three year old whisky on the market with no age statement. They don’t want to tarnish their reputation by selling an inferior product.
But, I do think we need to be cautious of any whisky introduced lacking an age statement. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding (or in this instance, the “proof” is in the bottle.)
Bottom line here: taste before you buy.
My favorite example was the Macallan “Private Eye” bottling which had no age statement except to say that there was some 1961 vintage in the bottle – It was/is an excellent dram – We bought ours at the distillery in 1998 for 35 pounds – Hate to think what it is worth now
When Springbank lost control of their inventory they really had no choice – Think of all that old, old Springbank in 10 YO bottles….
B.J.
I still have a bottle of Private Eye too! Haven’t popped the cork yet. Maybe very soon…
Sprinbank has been a fun and wild ride over the past 15 years, hasn’t it?
“Taste before you buy” – that’s good advice, but I’m curious how to best go about that, especially in our control state of Pennsylvania. Any tips on persuading PCLB employees to allow us to taste something first? Maybe your answer will be to drive to DE or NY
– Eric.
You have a few options:
1) Find a restaurant or bar that stocks a good selection of whisky where you can buy a dram
2) Attend a whisky event, like our WhiskyFests. We have one in NYC in October. All the major whiskies will be poured there.
3) Get a whisky club together where you buy bottles and share them.
4) Go out of state and find a retailer that lets you sample before you buy.
Good luck!
John’s comment about a bar or restaurant is excellent and if you happen to live in SE Wisconsin you’re in luck. I have tasted and kept notes on 544 different scotches and half of those have come from “The Union House” in Genesee Depot, about 1/2 hr WSW of Milwaukee. They have excellent food and also conduct scotch-tasting dinners with distillery reps or independent bottler reps as speakers.
And I love WhiskyFest Chicago. 1/5th of my list has come from there. I will be there again this April. Good food, a chance to talk to reps, meet other attendees. It’s a great time.
Also get to know a few discount liquor store owners, talk to them about helping you put together a tasting night with an organization you belong to. Perhaps work around a theme of comparisons or contrasts. Put together some handouts of tasting notes and trivia. Educate!