THINK TANK • 31 “This is why cask strength whiskies tend to change
much more slowly and, ultimately, benefi t more from the process. The changes are more nuanced and elegant than the extremes that can be found in the old 70 proof bottlings of blends from the 60s and 70s.” Perhaps the biggest factors in the development
of flavour over the years, however, are light and heat. Gordon Motion, master distiller at Edrington, explains: “If you store whiskies where there is light, you will expect the colour to fade. Keep it dark and in the bottle it may darken very slightly. The big issue for me is heat, though. As the bottle heats, the pressure increases, which may compromise the seal. Really, what you have is an alcohol thermometer.” Hughes adds: “Heat not only speeds up reactions
that would occur anyway, but it would also make other reactions more accessible. It would increase the intensity of a particular fl avour, which may not have been as perceptible if stored at lower temperatures and for fewer years.” Paterson says: “Warming the whisky helps to age it
that little bit quicker, but it’s a miniscule aging process. Certain characteristic may get blown off the edges.
The quest and the test
Perhaps the most renowned of “old bottles” were those salvaged from underneath the abandoned Antarctic shack of the explorer Ernest Shackleton.
After the whisky dwelled in the ice for 100 years, its first breath of air was at the hands of Whyte and Mackay Master Blender Richard Paterson and his team in 2011.
The result of this work was not only the creation of a run of limited replicas of the Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky, but it also opened up a window to whisky making back in 1897.
Paterson and his team put the whisky samples under a barrage of tests to check its condition and the likely effects the environment and time had inflicted on the bottles. He explains: “In the bottle we sampled, the cork was perfect and the seal was tight. In fact, of the 35 bottles recovered there was only one leaker.”
“Although the bottles had lay on their sides all that time under the shack it was at a relatively stable temperature, and apart from the voyage to the Antarctic, they hadn’t been moved around over the years.
At about 47.3% the whisky never froze. If it was about 43% or under, you would have seen the breakdown of oils, making the spirit cloudy. In fact, the cold temperature was the best thing for it.
And despite tasting a “softness in the edges” due to bottle aging, Paterson says “it was these conditions which gave us a firm idea of whisky making in the early 20th century.”
Clockwise from left: Old bottles at Mulberry Bank auctionhouse, Ernest Shackleton discovers he’s forgotten his whisky, recreating the Shackleton whisky
Light also will lose the natural colours, removing layers from the whisky and exposing a lighter side to the spirit. Both light and heat can soften a whisky, taking away some of the aggressive characteristics.” Even with the relative absence of these external
factors, whisky may still have the potential to change. This is shown in the whisky recovered from explorer Ernest Shackleton’s shack in the Antarctic, after being left for 100 years, sealed well in a stable, cold, dark environment (see panel). Even then, with little to disturb the spirit’s slumber, Paterson, who sampled some of the whisky, tasted “a softness in the edges” due to bottle aging. The big question, though, is whether some changes in the bottle would mean the spirit has “gone off ”? For Hughes, it’s subjective. “If ageing induces something undesired it’s gone off. If it’s positive it’s matured. So in my view it’s a question of taste,” he says.
Angus says it depends on the conditions and the
whisky: “The old bottle eff ect can be good or bad to great extremes. In its worst manifestations the bottle can be corked, fl awed, over oxidised and undrinkable. If the initial spirit is poor or flawed to begin with, then the old bottle eff ect seems only to magnify these aspects. However, at its best it can enhance depth and complexity immensely, it tends to soften the alcohol making the whisky more palatable while sharpening and focusing the personality and fl avours in quite a beautiful way.” Gordon Motion is more sceptical about the impact of any effect: “On the whole I would dispute that there is much of a fl avour diff erence compared to when the whisky goes in the bottle. For example, back in 2002 we were off ered back a 50-year-old bottle of Highland Park that had also been sitting in the bottle for another 50 years. Apart from it being slightly under strength, which could have been due to air ingress, it was recognisable as a 50 year old Highland Park that has been recently bottled.” Paterson takes more of a middle road.
Although he believes the changes to the fl avour are minimal, certainly in comparison to the fl avour development in casks, he also
says you can notice subtle diff erences from bottles that have been sitting around for decades. Whisky afficiados could certainly undertake an
experiment to decide for themselves. All you need is the patience to fi nd two very old bottles from the same distillery of the same year (preferably of the same bottling batch) and deep enough pockets to buy them. There’s no doubt obtaining the help of friends in the tasting will not prove a problem, though. It’s an endeavour that is more likely to happen on the continent – in countries such as Germany, Italy, Belgium and France. It is there, Angus says, that the passion in old bottles, and of the old bottle eff ect, has fi rst been stoked. “There is something of a cult about it on the continent,” he says. “Most of the sales from our auctions for old interesting bottles comes from these countries. There is a hunger to seek out and celebrate the old bottle eff ect.” On these shores, however, there isn’t quite the same
enthusiasm, MacRaild explains. “It’s a bit of hard sell. There are some, but a lot of people either don’t believe it or understand it. I hope, though, that will change.”
THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36