Year on bottle ??
 

I am new to the Scotch world and have my first question, I'm sure a stupid one to some :) . I recently purchased a bottle of Balvenie Doublewood 12 year old. I don't see an actual date on the bottle of when it was made? Is this common? So what I am asking is do most of the Scotches have a date on the bottle of the date it was placed in the barrel? Thanks in advance

Year on Bottle
 

Most whiskies do not label the year they were put into the barrel. They only put the number of years it was in the barrel. This is because, like your example, Balvenie Doublewood 12 is released often year after year. It's probably also been put into barrels year after year, so they are barreling the same raw spirit each year and aging it 12 years. Same for Laphroaig 10. They make what will become "Laphroaig 10" every day (I'm guessing) and barrel it up and label the barrel. 10 years later the spirit is bottled and labeled a 10 yo whisky.

I think the main reason for this labeling, as opposed to vintage labeling like wines, is that whisky does not age at all once it's bottled. So, a Laphroaig 10 bottled in 1990 won't be all that different than a Laphroaig 10 bottled in 2001, if at all. So, vintage isn't important when you're talking about the age of whisky.

Now, some distilleries to put vintage statements on their whiskies, sometimes, too. Glenrothes, among others does this. This leads to my question, which is, what is the point of vintage labeling in whisky?

Year on Bottle
 

I think that you will find that vintage bottling is mostly done for single cask bottlings and mostly, but not always they are bottled at cask strength. You will also find that the best exception for vintage bottling is KNOCKANDO. This distillery bottles the vintage when the master blender thinks its ready and not at a certain age, although many of KNOCKANDO vintage bottlings are at 12 years old and not single cask bottlings. Also, keep in mind that just because a bottling indicates 10 years old doesn't mean that all whiskies in that bottle are 10 years old. Single malts do vat ( new term: blended malt ) different ages together. It is the youngest whisky in the vatting that gets the age statement by British law. As long as all whiskies in the bottle come from the same distillery, the bottling is a single malt as a single malt is the product from a single distillery even though it may have several different aged whiskies in the recipe. The master blender is looking for a flavor profile. It's not as black and white as a distillation run being casked today and 10 years later it is bottled with only 10 year old that was run 10 years earlier. I'm sure the distilleries wish it was that simple. And let's not forget the marketing boys as well. Hope this helps wading through the mud a little easier.

Slainte

yeah, that's true about the age statement. I was just going to correct myself based on something I read last night.

It's not the age of all the whisky in the bottle. It's the age of the youngest whisky in the bottle.

Great replys and thanks again for the info.
Just purchased a bottle of Bruichladdich 12 second edition, very nice but I guess I was looking for more of a peat flavor like the Ardbeg I tried a while ago. I thought all from Islay had a peat tone.

Year on bottle ??
 

george13815,

Please see below. Below is a post I made on QUEST FOR SMOKE. It should help you with selections of Islay malts and peat levels. As you will see below, not all Islays are peaty drams.


For burning embers, ARDBEG 10YO will do the trick. For standard bottlings of Islay malts, ARDBEG is the most highly peated at 55 PPM Phenols. ARDBEG does bottle the special release SUPERNOVA at 100 PPM Phenols. LAPHROAIG is peated at 40-43 PPM Phenols, BOWMORE at 20-25 PPM, LAGAVULIN at 35-40 PPM, CAOL ILA 30-35 PPM, and BRUICHLADDICH standard bottlings at 3-4 PPM ( formerly 8 PPM ). Since its reopening BRUICHLADDICH has released heavily peated malts; BRUICHLADDICH Peat with a phenol level at 35 PPM and they have also released 4 cask strength expressions of PORT CHARLOTTE PC5, PC6, PC7and PC8 ( designating the age of the malt ) all of which were peated at 40 PPM Phenols. BRUICHLADDICH has just released a fifth PORT CHARLOTTE at 46% ABV named An Turas Mor - Gaelic for The Great Journey. BRUICHLADDICH has also experimented and released 4 bottlings of OCTOMORE. The OCTOMORE bottling of FUTURES was peated at 80.5 PPM Phenols, OCTOMORE 2.1 and 2.2 releases peated at 140 PPM each and the newest release peated at 152 PPM Phenols. BUNNAHABHAIN is the lightest peated of all Islay malts. It's standard bottling is peated at 1-2 PPM Phenols but in 1997 BUNNAHABHAIN began experimenting and have released some special bottlings, releasing the MOINE ( Scottish Gaelic for PEAT and pronounced MONA as in MONA LISA ) for one of the annual FEIS ILE and have also sold casks to independent bottlers; one being SIGNATORY. This malt was peated at 38 PPM. I have not been able to find the phenol level of the newest Islay malt; KILCHOMAN ( pronounced KIL-HOMAN; the C is silent ) but will post once I find the info. There have been several highland distilleries that have high phenol levels and have bottled. Most notably is BENRIACH Curiositos and a cask strength bottling and a non-cask strength by SIGNATORY; followed by EDRADOUR'S bottling of BALLECHIN, and TOMINTOUL'S bottling of BALLANTRUAN. CAPERDONICH heavily peated malt can be found in independent bottlings, specifically bottled by THE SINGLE MALTS of SCOTLAND ( Specialty Drinks ).

One more note: Macleods 8-Year-Old; Macleods 8-Year-Old ISLAY happens to be LAGAVULIN. Thought you might like to know.

Since writing the above, I have received information that KILCHOMAN is peated at 50 PPM Phenols.

Just to clarify a couple of points on phenols. Laphroaig is peated to a minimum of 50ppm and Ardbeg to 45ppm and the only mainland malt to have always peated its whisky is Ardmore, all the others distilleries campaign peated malt for a number of weeks.
To set the cat among the pigeons is the fact that 2/3rds of all phenols are lost in distillation so it would be better for the distilleries to talk about the amount of phenols in the bottle. Quite honestly 2/3rds of 60 or 50 or 40ppm means that there is very little difference in the bottle especially when the phenol flavour softens with age. It would be far better to talk about the peat infuence as this is more pertinent and important to the flavour rather than get stuck on who's got the highest ppm.

Year on bottle ??
 

As I understand that 2/3 is lost in distillation, I was making the point that each distillery has different peating levels. Some higher than others. My supporting documentation contradicts your numbers for Laphroaig and Ardbeg. Additionally, when in Scotland last month, I had a conversation at Ardbeg with Mickey Heads, Ardbeg distillery manager, and he confirmed that all STANDARD distillations are done at 55 PPM phenols.

I don;t know where you got your documentation but I would think that John Campbell would know what Laphroaig peats to and when Glenmorangie bought Ardbeg it was peated to a maximum of 45ppm so they must have altered it over the past 10 years./