From the New York Times
THE indispensable ingredient in great whiskey is time: years of aging and mellowing in casks. But in the world of craft whiskey, a growing number of distillers are unwilling to wait that long.
With a range of new technologies and techniques – smaller barrels, ultrasound machines, pressure chambers – they can put on the shelf in a matter of months, if not weeks, whiskeys that they say compare to ones matured for three to five years.
“Everyone’s trying to cheat time, in a sense to cheat mother nature,” said John Hansell, the editor of The Whisky Advocate.
While most small distillers continue to churn out unaged products (like vodka or gin) that can move from still to store in days, dozens of intrepid entrepreneurs see aged liquors, particularly whiskey, as their best shot at differentiating themselves in an increasingly crowded market.
