something else i’d like to see, though it’s more a resource than a topic (and forgive me if it already exists), is a listing of the kinds of woods/barrels in which most original bottlings are done. the distillery websites are usually mum on this front, but i assume it’s available information. my new bottle of talisker 25 (40th birthday treat) says it was bottled in refill casks–but what kind? does the laphroaig 10 go in the same kind of barrels as the 15 or the 18 or the 25 or the 30? if not on what basis do the distilleries (or independents) decide which kind of barrels to pick for particular expressions/ages?

also: bruichladdich. why am i so shallow that i cannot get past the absolut vodka style marketing/positioning to actually try their whiskies?

This still leaves the question “what takes the bite (burn) out of ethanol?” Is the bite just covered up by the congeners or is it just the dilution with water that removes the bite? I have never tried pure ethanol but I imagine it has quite a bite. Would the bite of pure ethanol go away if I just added water to take it to, say, 40%? I was trying to understand how barrel aging made a whisky “mellow”, not just flavorful. When I read the article I mentioned I thought they had an explanation, but now I agree with you that it is not “cluster” formation from ethanol-water solution aging. To validate the theory they would have to do the tests on two pure ethanol-water solutions, one new and one aged 10-12 years. I guess I am still wondering. If the congeners in whisky take away the ethanol bite, what takes away the bite in premium vodka? Or does a 50-50 mixture of pure ethanol and pure water not have a bite?

I just found this on Serge`s whiskyfun

“Dalmore 1981/2009 ‘Matusalem Sherry Finesse’ (44%, OB, Matusalem sherry finish, 474 bottles) Four stars The ‘colleague’ of the Amoroso Sherry Finesse that I tried last year and really liked (WF 88). At 450 Euros, it’s not cheap to say the least. Also funny to see all the distillers’ efforts to find other names for ‘finished’ (ACE-ed, finessed, refined… curious about the next one, how about ‘luxurianced’?)”

Luxuriated gave me two ideas for your original question John.

First what about the range from ACE which Jim McEwan says can be as short as some days to second maturation of a whisky for years in another kind of wood.

Does it make sense and do we really taste differences?

And, as an afterthought, does the usage of a Chateau Petrus or other fancy expensive sounding wine cask justify to sell the finished whisky for, err premium prices?

Second for luxurianced I would put premiumatized.

Is a whisky premium because somebody says so? Is it premium because it is old? Rare? Uncommon?

And to make a connection to another running thread here: Is something like the Mangers Choice premium and if so why?

If not why not? They asks premium prices.

“Changes in structural properties in spirits during maturation

The increase in the interaction between ethanol and water molecules and the progress in the formation of stable clusters of ethanol and water during storage of spirits in oak casks can be found by various physico-chemical measurements such as laser raman spectroscopy (Nakamura, 1952b), light scattering measurements (Nakamura, 1952a), proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (Akahoshi and Ohkuma, 1984), dielectric measurements (Akahoshi, 1963) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) (Koga and Yoshizumi, 1977, 1979; Akahoshi and Ohkuma, 1985).
From dielectric measurements of whisky aged 10 years and unaged aqueous ethanol solutions at various frequencies, the dielectric constants of the matured spirits were lower than those of unmatured aqueous ethanol, and differences between the samples were larger with increasing frequency. This indicated that the molecules of water and ethanol in matured spirits could not easily be oriented due to cluster formation during maturation (Akahoshi, 1963).
In aged spirits the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrum of hydroxy protons was significantly broader than that of new spirits. There was a half band width increase in proportion to the length of storage. These results indicated a decrease in the exchange rate of hydroxy protons, formation of stable molecular clusters in which the migration of ethanol molecules was restricted, and a decrease in monomeric ethanol (Akahoshi and Ohkuma, 1984).
The DSC thermograms of the melting process of rapidly frozen matured whisky and water-ethanol mixture are shown in Fig. 8.6. The upward peaks were due to exothermic reactions and the downward peaks were due to endothermic reactions. Peaks 1 and 4 were attributed to the melting of free water and ethanol molecules, while peak 3 was due to the eutectic of alcohol and water molecules. Comparing the DSC thermogram of matured whisky with that of the water-ethanol mixture, the areas of peaks 1 and 4 of matured whisky were smaller than those of the unmatured one, and the area of peak 3 was larger. These results indicated the increasing interaction between alcohol and water molecules with maturation (Koga and Yoshizumi, 1977).
A non-volatile extract of oak wood was observed to promote the interaction between alcohol and water molecules in spirits. The DSC thermogram in Fig. 8.7 shows that the interactions between alcohol and water observed in matured whisky were destroyed by distillation, but appeared again on the addition of the dillation residue to the distillate (Nishimura et al., 1983).
Thermograms of the melting of rapidly frozen samples prepared by adding non-volatile components isolated from matured whisky in various amounts to unmatured whisky, as shown in Fig. 8.8, indicated clearly that interaction between ethanol and water increased with an increased concentration of the nonvolatile components (Koga, 1981). Among the non-volatile components of matured whisky, inorganic salts and a fraction of molecular weight above 1000 containing wood components such as lignin and tannins, were found to contribute to the formation of stable clusters of water and ethanol molecules.” (note: you will have to imagine the figure referred to)

The implication is that over long periods of time the clusters are formed and they apparently make the ethanol more mellow (take out the alcohol bite). I was wondering if any more research has been done on this subject. I so far have not found anything on the web. If any of the above is true then I still have the questions I posed in my original posting.