When did they start to

[Aidan]

significantly age whiskey? Obviously 12 year olds have been around for a long time, but was 18 or 20+ year old whiskey marketed at the begining of the 20th century? Earlier, or much later?

[Jan]

Aidan, why is it obvious that 12yo has been along for a long time ?

Just curious...


Cheers
Jan

[Aidan]

Hi Jan

Because I know there was 12 year old Irish whiskey available in the early 20th century. There was also liquer whiskies available back then.

[Paul A Jellis]

In 1906 Walker's Kilmarnock Whiskies (now Johnnie Walker) were selling White Label as over 5 years, Red label as over 9 years and Black Label as over 12 years. When they re-named to Johnnie Walker in 1908 they changed White Label to over 6 years and Red Label to over ten years old.

In 1943 Haig & Haig was sold as a 12 year old (for the 'dimple' bottle) and 8 years old (for 'Five Star'); prior to that, in 1937, Gilbey's Spey Royal was sold as 'Guaranteed Ten Years Old'.

The distilleries, at that time, were more into promoting the age of the distillery, rather than the age of the whisky. Promoting and selling older whisky seems to be a recent (1980s+) trend.

Cheers, Paul

[irishwhiskeychaser]

Good question. I would agree that the 12yo has probably been the most popular aged Irish Whiskey and largley produced whiskey going back to the 19th century, and the 7yo & 9yo were big ones too. I personally reckon that older ages/vintages are a fairly new invention by the scotts where they found that their whisky greatly improved with further ageing. This is not to say that old malts were not around but just not very available as compared to today. Anybody any other thoughts????

[TheLiquorBaron]

I personally reckon that older ages/vintages are a fairly new invention by the scotts

Invention is probably not the best word to use as aged whisk(e)y is not an invention. The Light Globe was...

Remember that older vintages are now more prevelant due to distillery stocks. The question could possibly read...When did distilleries begin to accumulate enough stock to be able to release 'vintages' and other bottlings not of the usual stock releases....??

Stocks would be determined by a number of factors - main factor being consumer demands, i.e. less drinkers more whisky!! But then don't forget distilleries do adjust their output accordingly.

[irishwhiskeychaser]

I personally reckon that older ages/vintages are a fairly new invention by the scotts

Invention is probably not the best word to use as aged whisk(e)y is not an invention. The Light Globe was...

The question could possibly read...When did distilleries begin to accumulate enough stock to be able to release 'vintages' and other bottlings not of the usual stock releases....??

True probably wrong selection of words there...

Any way the question is when did all this become big business.

I was basically assigning it to the Scottish distilleries as it did not appear to be a big part of the Irish Whiskey industry in the days of yore... Even today it is not a big deal for Irish whiskey......

of course we don't need to mature ours as long to get good whiskey cheeky

[Aidan]

The Light Globe was...

...not invented by Edison. Nor was the TV invented by Baird. Nor was Millikan's oil drop experiment invented by Millikan.

Nothing to do with the topic, but I thought I'd throw it in.

[Spirit of Islay]

The Light Globe was...

...not invented by Edison.

Joseph Swann in Newcastle !
And Cragside in Rothbury was the first private residence lit by electric lamp .....
Well it's handy stuff for pub quizzes !!!!!

[PuckJunkie]

The Light Globe was...

...not invented by Edison.

Joseph Swann in Newcastle !
And Cragside in Rothbury was the first private residence lit by electric lamp .....
Well it's handy stuff for pub quizzes !!!!!

Now, wait. If Davy produced an electric arc light, and Swann's sole contribution was to change it into a different form of completely unusable bulb, how does Swann get credit? How about Bush, for making the first actually usable bulb - or Edison, who made the first one that could be used for long periods of time? Or Davy, who actually discovered that electric current through a carbon fiber glowed enough to give off usable light - and did it 70 years before any of this other stuff happened?

And who the heck is Baird? Everyone here is taught that television was invented by Farnsworth. I've never even heard of Baird.

I'm very disappointed to hear about Millikan. Does this mean that someone's repossessing his Nobel Prize?

Puck

[Aidan]

John Logie Baird.

Millikan's oil drop experiment was, of course, invented by Millikan, but I think it was based on Anderson's (?) water drop experiment.

On another note - Golf wasn't invented in Scotland either.

[Spirit of Islay]

Swann beat Edison to get the first viable one only Edison gets all the credit.
Davy ? as in the Davy Pit Lamp ?
Have you never heard of John Logie Baird ?

[PuckJunkie]

Swann beat Edison to get the first viable one only Edison gets all the credit.
Davy ? as in the Davy Pit Lamp ?
Have you never heard of John Logie Baird ?

My understanding was that Swann's wasn't viable either, just one step closer to Bush's, which was. But just barely. And yes, that's the same Humphrey Davy.

No, I've never heard of John Logie Baird. He must have done something to tick off the history guys on this side of the pond. Or I have a gap in my knowledge! HORRIFYING!!

Puck

P.S. I'm going to attempt to stop hijacking this thread. Sorry.

[Aidan]

It's my thread, and I say "anything goes." Feel free to talk about inventions, bears, bon bons, cars, taxidermy...