“How old must bourbon be?”
It’s one of whiskey’s most famous trick questions. The answer is a simple one: not very long at all. As soon as the liquid touches new charred oak, it can technically be called bourbon, even if the “aging” period is no more than a few seconds.
But ask how old should bourbon be, and the answer becomes infinitely more complicated.
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Variables like mash bill, grain variety, yeast strains, fermentation time, still type, barrel source, barrel entry proof, aging environment, warehouse type, and elevation all have distinct impacts on flavor before whiskey even hits a bottle — and that’s just scratching the surface of the obvious culprits.
Barrels aging in extreme Texas heat might churn out great product in 2 years; age those same barrels in New England, and you’ll likely need a very different maturation time. Control as much of the above factors as possible, and you can still get substantially different bourbons from sister barrels aging side-by-side.
There’s an even more fickle variable at play beyond: consumer taste. For a century or more, conventional wisdom held that bourbon hit its peak somewhere in the 4- to 8-year range. Some whiskey regulations reflected this in part: Until the late 1950s, Bottled-in-Bond bourbon carried a maximum age statement of 8 years. During the “glut” era of the 1970s and ’80s, American demand for more expensive, older bourbon was so low that much of it was bottled and exported to foreign markets, notably Japan.
Today, in the post-bourbon-boom world, buyers here and abroad clamor for older and older American whiskey. Brands with well-aged stocks have responded with highly aged expressions carrying hefty price tags.
Have our collective taste preferences really changed that much? Or is the desire for older bourbon the byproduct of a vicious cycle of one-upmanship? Few topics can raise a whiskey blender’s blood pressure like a perceived age/quality equivalency.
Given the factors involved in distillation and aging, it’s almost impossible to understate how difficult it is to deduce an ideal age range for bourbon. But asking the question can reveal a lot about the realities and nuances of bourbon, especially when answers come from the people who make it.
To that end, we asked nine of the smartest distillers and blenders in American whiskey for their thoughts on the “ideal” age range for bourbon, spanning no more than four years. We also asked respondents to include a brief explanation for their ranges, whether for bourbon in general or just the liquid they make. Hailing from craft operations all the way up to behemoth legacy producers, as varied as personal preferences are, the majority of responses include some major caveats and qualifiers. Here’s what they had to say.
Note: These responses have been lightly edited for formatting and clarity.
Eddie Russell, Master Distiller, Wild Turkey
Preferred Age Range: 10 to 14 years
“I prefer 10- to 14-year-old bourbon. I believe the 10- and 11-year-old delivers the most elegant notes of bourbon. Then, as it ages a few more years, it brings just enough of the oak notes to balance out more complex notes.”
Bruce Russell, Blender, Wild Turkey
Preferred Age Range: 11 to 15 years (for Wild Turkey)
“I believe this answer differs for each distillery. So, if I’m talking about Wild Turkey it would be somewhere around 11–15 years. The bourbon at that age has a great balance of sweetness, spice, fruit, and oak.”
Conor O’Driscoll, Master Distiller, Heaven Hill
Preferred Age Range: 8 to 12 years
“I tend to be drawn to the taste profile of bourbons aged between 8 [and] 12 years, but no hard-and-fast rules on either end. There are plenty of great bourbons younger than 8 years old, but once you get past about 12 years, you have to be very careful not to overage it and end up with a whiskey that tastes like a dirty old stick.”
Eboni Major, American Whiskey Blender
Preferred Age Range: 6 to 8 years
“My personal preference is a 6- to 8-year-old liquid. It seems to take about 3 years, maybe 4 for a whiskey to lose its immaturity. After year 5, you start to see more of the unique distinctions from barrel to barrel. Of course, there are great young liquids — and all of this is typically dependent on two things:
- The starting quality of distillate. True blending starts with distillate appraisal. Starting in 2015, I worked with [new] distillate samples the majority of my time for 6-plus months before interacting with maturate samples. That helped me understand the changes in liquid over time.
- The barrel supplier. Not all wood is the same and not all processing is the same. In my career, I have had the pleasure of working with multiple brands sourcing from multiple distillers, across many barrel suppliers. Most recently, I helped a client release a very young product, but I truly believe the quality of the unique barrel choice made that possible.
Those main factors, in combination with aging location, play a big role in the liquid’s quality. So in short, while I have an ideal age range, this could greatly vary depending on the distillery and their process. Whiskey is very nuanced.”
Brian Sprance, Master Distiller, New Riff Distilling
Preferred Age Range: 6 to 10 years
“While older bourbons can obviously be exceptional, the sweet spot for New Riff, so far at least, seems to lie within the 6- to 10-year range, where the spirit’s youthful energy is balanced by the oak’s influence, defying the traditional notion of ‘older is always better.’ That being said, even our oldest bourbons have yet to give any indication that they won’t shine as they continue to age and develop.
The ideal age for any individual whiskey isn’t always determined by the number of years in the barrel. For our bourbon, for example, we selected a relatively low barrel entry proof of 110, and a high-rye mash bill (30 percent rye), with the intention of reaching a harmonious blend of flavor and complexity in a relatively short time [4 years].”
Elizabeth McCall, Master Distiller, Woodford Reserve
Preferred Age Range: 5 to 7 years (for Woodford Reserve)
“The bourbon barons who testified in front of Congress defending the Bottled-in-Bond Act stated that bourbon is bred to be 6–8 years of age. Using this as a guide for traditional bourbon maturation and our maturation flavor levers for Woodford Reserve, our maturation sweet spot is 5–7 years. This sweet spot is impacted by many variables. Our maturation story starts with building our own barrels at the Brown-Forman Cooperage, seasoning the wood for a minimum of 9 months, toasting each barrel for 10 minutes, and charring for 25 seconds.
Then we enter our distillate into the barrel at 110 proof. This lower proof allows our whiskey to absorb more flavor from the barrel, exposes our whiskey to more oak, and we don’t see the proof increase as much during maturation, therefore allowing us to retain more flavor when cutting to our bottling proof of 90.4.
Our warehouses are heat-cycled, meaning that in the winter when most whiskey is sitting dormant, not maturing, we are heating our warehouse to summer-like temperatures around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, holding them for a week and cutting the heat off and allowing the cold winter air to lower the temperature. Once we hit roughly 60 degrees Fahrenheit we start the cycle again. This fluctuation, or cycling of the temperature, drives color and flavor extraction from the barrels. All of this adds up to our 5- to 7-year “sweet spot” window of maturation, helping us achieve the balance and complexity that bourbon lovers look for.“
Brandon Collins, Distillery Manager, Kings County Distillery
Preferred Age Range: 6 to 10 years
“My ideal range is 6 to 10 years old. This range gives a great variety of profiles while still not being overly oaked. In young whiskey, green apple notes tend to be present. Once you enter into the beginning part of this range you have some really nice notes of stone fruit that start to take over from the green apple.
If your mash bill is a higher rye as the secondary grain, the 6- to 8-year range brings you some great quality daily drinkers. The later part of this age statement is when you develop a perfect balance of oak and congeners.
Also, if you use a wheated bourbon mash bill, 8 to 10 years is when those whiskeys really shine. There is so much diversity that can be achieved between 6 [and] 10 years and it all starts with how you use your mash bills and distilling techniques to make exceptional products.”
Alan Kennedy, Master Distiller/Blender, Redemption Whiskey
Preferred Age Range: 9 to 13 years
“The 9- to 13-year range strikes a perfect balance between patience and the chemistry of aging. By this stage, the wood sugars have dissolved, the vanillin has integrated smoothly, and the harshness of the char has softened, allowing the terroir of the wood and the subtlety of the grains to harmonize. Supported by the strength of the oak, the sweetness and spice achieve an ideal balance.
While I’ve seen beautifully managed 15- and 18-year-old bourbons, this range is where the wisdom of age meets the vibrancy of youth.”
Isaac Winter, Director of Distilling, High West Whiskey
Preferred Age Range: 6 to 10 years
“I think bourbons are generally differentiated by the balance they strike between distillery character and maturation character. Not enough maturation on the bourbon and you can end up with harsh edges and little depth. Too much time in a barrel can wipe away the nuance the distiller creates with their own process.
For me, that 6- to 10-year-old range is the sweet spot — a coherent maturation profile, an absence of immature distillate character, and a glimmer of the distillery’s unique spark.”
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