FOOD NEWS
How To Understand The Age Statement On Your Bottle Of Bourbon
BY BRIAN UDALL
The age statement on a bottle of bourbon tells you how old the youngest contributing batch of bourbon in the bottle is, but it doesn't convey all the details.
If a bottle says three years, that can mean it has four batches of whiskey aged for three years, or that one batch is three years old, two are four years old, and one is five.
If it's aged longer than four years, the distiller doesn't have to place an age statement on the bottle, but it's often still included for higher age statements, anyway.
Each distillery has its own blending method and every batch requires innovation and careful attention to detail. To avoid ambiguity, dive into the world of single barrel bourbon.
Single barrel bourbon is unblended; what you get in the bottle comes from only one barrel of whiskey. If there's an age statement, that's how old the whiskey is.
These whiskeys aren't going to be consistent in flavor, but whiskey connoisseurs seek these products out for that very reason. They're unique to the fullest extent of the word.