BourbonEnthusiast.com

There is a tendency to think that bourbon and rye were very young, primitive drinks before the Civil War.

In fact, the opposite was true, as this new research shows here: http://www.beeretseq.com/most-antebellu ... -aged-not/

The minimum acceptable age was six years and fine whiskey ranged at 10-20 years old - not just as a curiosity, or one-off, but an established practice.

Gary

Thanks for that Gary.

I think the general thinking on that is that because of the influence of climate bourbon, as opposed to Scotch where the climate is much lower and steadier, evaporates and takes on the characteristics of it's barrel at a different rate. That sort of assumes the same climate everywhere in the United States which is a somewhat dubious assumption but it's not entirely wrong either. I know I visited the Virginia Distillery in Lovingston Virginia and they make a single malt (now they are importing from Scotland and aging here but are in the process of making their own) and they said that there's no doubt the difference in climate in Virginia as opposed to Scotland does have an influence on the aging process. You have to be much more careful about rotating your stock, I think, for one.