One thing I really love about the Artic Wolf is what a handy foil he makes. There are so many myths about spirits and he seems to have fallen for most of them; better yet he publishes them. And if there's something to be misunderstood...
He will.
His latest misunderstanding concerns Black Grouse, a delicious blended whisky from the house of The Famous Grouse (the most popular blend in both Scotland and whisky loving Sweden). Anyway, to make things short he gave a nice warm review ending with his lament and wish "...if only it had been aged a little longer".
A perfectly rational statement for a non-blended single rum or malt, but hopelessly naive when it comes to blends.
You see this attitude is a corollary of "older is better" (which although true to a point also has its limits). The sweet spot for rums is arguably about 7 to 10 years. But age has very little to do with blends.
Blends are different.
Let's use a classic example. Johnnie Walker Black Label uses upwards of 40 different Scotch whiskys in its blend. Some are quite young, fruity and floral, some are quite old, thick and complex. But altogether they create a blend of flavors that create and maintain a consistent profile. Doing this over the years with changing components is quite an achievement.
Blending is truly an art. And age per se has nothing to do with it.
The idea that all the final blend needs is "a few more years in the barrel" is both wrong and naive. What it actually may need is a change in the blend, perhaps more fruit, more smoke or the like. Perhaps the blend is simply not to your taste. But aging the whole shebang is not the answer; in fact doing so might well have adverse consequences: it might lose its youthful vigor, flavors will be altered, added or removed. And all of these will occur in an unpredictable matter, and change the character of every single component in the blend.
Some would call Wolfie's attitude just plain dumb.
Actually, I think he's simply expressing the fool notion that if age is good, more age is better. And that's just plain wrong, especially for blends. Dave Broom says it best:
Attitudes like those of the Frozen One are what lead to products like Johnnie Walker's Green Label - proudly proclaiming its age (15 years) and naming four of its famous components, as if blending four lovely components of a nice old age will - of course! - produce an equally lovely blend. But blends don't work that way. The peppery strong Talisker may overpower the Linkwood's fruit and flowers. Blending is not that simple."It is normal to want answers to questions like how many malts are in this blend? What are they? And how old are they? The answers are: the right number for the flavor to be delivered; the right ones for the flavor to work; and the right ages for the flavor to work. The numbers don't matter, the recipe doesn't matter.
The flavor does."
It is an art, built on changing components, options and goals but which seeks to create a consistent and desirable flavor profile. And age per se has nothing to do with it...
