All of this changed in the mid-19th century when France’s vineyards were struck by grape phylloxera, a tiny insect that stunts or kills vines. Not only did this destroy supplies of wine but, in a knock-on effect, also wiped out Europe’s stock of cognac. The continent’s well-to-do began searching for a new tipple of choice. Initially, they settled on Spanish sherries. As empty sherry casks began to pile up, Scottish whisky distillers bought these suddenly cheap commodities and put them to use to store their own product.

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The results were a revelation. It was quickly apparent that storing whisky in these sherry casks greatly improved the flavour of the product. Over a longer period, it became obvious that the more time a whisky spent in one of these casks, the more the flavour improved. Thanks to this discovery, whisky would become the spirit of choice for Europe’s aristocracy by the late 19th century.

Fast forward 120 years and the importance of ageing is universally recognised. “Time is a very important concept when it comes to the ageing of a single malt whisky,” explains Patricia Byott, prestige brand ambassador for The Macallan. “Over time the spirit will take on both flavour and colour from the wood adding to the overall texture, character and complexity of the final single malt. Every cask will have a different personality and time allows it to develop and mature.”

However, the perception that older automatically means better is not necessarily true. “Certainly a whisky might be richer or more complex with increased time in barrel, equally it might not be,” says Struan Grant Ralph, global brand ambassador for Glenfiddich. “So much depends on the quality of the wood, its source, and the activity of the actual oak casks, which can be depleted after decades of use.”

It takes a certain amount of faith to invest in a product that you might not plan on selling for several decades. One company used to playing the waiting game is Gordon & Macphail who earlier this year in Hong Kong, auctioned a 72-year-old and an 80-year-old whisky that they had matured and bottled.

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“As the popularity of single malts has grown, companies have been laying down more stock for bottling as older products. This takes confidence that the desirability of your whisky will exist in many years’ time,” says Ewen Mackintosh, managing director at Gordon & Macphail.

Earlier generations at Gordon & Macphail clearly possessed the confidence Mackintosh talks of and made the necessary investments, which the fourth-generation business, in operation for 126 years, is now realising in the form of its 80-year-old Glenlivet, acclaimed the world’s oldest single malt.

Some are not content to wait, though. The founders of America’s Lost Spirits distillery sparked huge controversy with their declaration that via new technology they could create whiskies and rums with the characteristics of a product aged 20 years in just one week. Known as “accelerated ageing” or “rapid maturation”, the technique uses heat and specific bands of light to break down oak barrel wood and simulate the ageing process at a vastly increased pace.

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While the approach has its champions, Grant Ralph is adamant the effect of time cannot be replaced: “No, absolutely not. Much like in life, time and age are constants and cannot be slowed down or sped up. You may be able to influence the flavour of whisky with accelerated wood influence, but the true sense of age cannot be recreated.”

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