# Reading a whisky age statement

The number on a whisky label is one of the few claims on a duty free shelf that is legally defined, and one of the most widely misread. It is worth knowing precisely what it promises, because the promise is narrower than most shoppers assume, and the absence of a number says much less than the shelf implies.

## The number is the youngest, not the average

Where a bottle carries an age statement, the figure must be the age of the youngest whisky in it. A blend that is mostly twenty year old spirit with a small proportion of twelve year old is a twelve year old whisky on the label. The rule exists so the number cannot be inflated, and it means an age statement is a floor rather than a description.

## What the age actually measures

The age is time in the cask, not time in the bottle. Whisky stops developing once it is bottled, so a twelve year old bought thirty years ago is still a twelve year old. Time in wood is where colour, tannin, vanilla and spice arrive, and where a proportion of the spirit is lost to evaporation, which is part of why older whisky costs more to make.

More time is not the same as better. Warm climates mature spirit faster, so an age that reads as young for a Scotch can read as mature for a whisky made nearer the equator. Beyond a certain point, extra years in an active cask push a whisky towards wood rather than towards balance. Distilleries choose an age because it is where that spirit is at its best, not because it is as long as they could hold out.

## No age statement is not a downgrade

A bottle with no number on it may be a blend built from casks of several ages that the distiller thinks works better than any single age would. It may also be a way of releasing whisky when stocks of older spirit are short. The label alone does not tell you which. What tells you is the taste, the maker's reputation and independent opinion: a medal from a serious competition is one such opinion, and we show them beside the price where they exist. [See the award winners](/awards).

## The other numbers on the label

Strength is the one worth reading next. Most whisky is bottled at 40 to 46 percent alcohol by volume; cask strength bottlings run considerably higher and give you more whisky per bottle in the literal sense, since you can dilute at home. Watch for it when you compare two bottles that look alike on price, and watch the volume too: the airport shelf favours the litre, the shop at home favours 70 or 75 centilitres, and comparing anything other than price per litre will mislead you.

## Before you buy one airside

Decide the age and the strength you want before you are in the shop, then check what the airports on your route are asking for it. [Whisky prices, shop by shop](/alcohol/whisky), each carrying the date we saw it.