THE SCIENCE OF ALCOHOL AGING [SPONSORED ARTICLE]
Glenfiddich® The complete science of barrel-aging whisky is something we have only recently come to understand. In the 1970s we began to uncover the full details of what happens when the Glenfiddich distillery men lay the base spirit to rest in oak casks and store it in one of our 46 warehouses. Our Malt Master, Brian Kinsman, told me that every new cask of spirit has the same opportunity of becoming a 12-year-old Scotch as it does of becoming one of the extremely rare casks that make up our incredible 50 Year Old. While we cannot predict what will happen in each individual cask, we do know that approximately 70% of the flavor characteristics of Glenfiddich come from the wood and the time spent maturing in it. In Scotland, we predominately use two types of wood to mature whisky-American white oak (Quercus alba) and European oak (Quercus robur)....