It would seem that simply using oak chips in plastic (or glass - inert in the context of destilled rum etc) barrels would be an easier way to speed up the process. Apparently the whisky industry is moving away from the age/years distinction - as it really is more marketing than a good indication of taste (see No-Age Statement).
Cognac is moving in a different direction: increasing the age required of the youngest au-de-vies for VSOP and XO characterisation. As rum is generally blended, like Cognac - that's probably a better analogy than single malt whisky. This why for example bottles of the same series of Cognac, or brand rums like Havana Club 7 anos can taste (almost) the same even when produced from different raw stocks - they are blended to meet a certain taste.
The reason for the industry moving away from age statements (or towards No Age Statement, or NAS bottlings) is popularity. Whisky goes through peaks and troughs, but, like coffee (whose trees take a few years to yield fruit), supply lags demand. During troughs, perfectly palatable 12+ year old single malts get chucked into your basic Jonny Walker type bottle because it makes more economic sense than storing it. Peaks require some creative thinking to cope with massive demand.
Take Japan: both Nikka and Suntory have moved to NAS (Taketsuru Pure Malt, Hibiki Harmony, etc.) because of a surge both in foreign demand for Japanese whisky (thanks to Murray who helpfully added that in his mind Scottish quality had been declining for several years after giving top ranking to Japanese names) and because Suntory (I think) tried to resurrect the waning appetite amongst the young Japanese for the "unfashionable, old-fashioned" brown spirit by launching advertising campaigns centered on highballs. They just don't have enough 12/17/21 year old barrels to meet demand and try to deflect some onto the NAS blends (and also skim some margin off the wave of popularity). I don't know what Laphroaig is doing, but as a long term drinker of the 18 I've also noticed a steady drop in quality (shorter finish, less complexity). And of course most of the major houses now add caramel to their base offering and often in more expensive older ones too...
Meanwhile, Karuisawa distillery, which had to close some years ago (like Port Ellen) for economic reasons and due to the lack of interest in whisky at the time, is now seeing its last bottles go for thousands - if you can find them anywhere. Hibiki 17 is out of stock at all Japanese duty frees and - as of April - is no longer sold at Haneda airport. You're seeing a lot of smaller names come into existence immediately at Scottish level prices - Ichiro/Chichibu (formerly Hanyu), Mars, Fuji to name three - and they are also often out of stock. (If you're interested in the subject, the Nonjatta blog is phenomenal.)
The rum industry is relatively untouched. Yes, there are massively marketed rums using all the tricks in the book, but if you are a fan of vintage rhum agricole (e.g. La Favorite La Flibuste or Privilege, 35 year old rhum agricole, still hand bottled and waxed, for 100-120 EUR!) or limited editions from Italian houses finding interesting barrels, you'll pay a lot less than for the equivalent quality in malt world...
Agreed that rum is probably the cheapest, high-quality, aged brown liquor (with the caveat that I don't really know anything about brandy/Armanac -- just a little bit about Cognac) available.
> I don't know what Laphroaig is doing, but as a long term drinker of the 18 I've also noticed a steady drop in quality (shorter finish, less complexity).
I have a similar impression of Laphroaig 10 (the only one I drink from time to time) -- but I assumed it was me getting more accustomed to more complex single malts. Perhaps not.
No question that NAS-branding has much to do with, well branding -- an steering volume sales. But I think it can/could work in favour of minor distilleries starting up (in terms of esp. single malt whisky, also "new" blends).
"Years in barrel" is a pretty silly guide anyway -- it matters a lot what the barrels have been used for before etc. At any rate I have no confidence that the industry (any industry, really) -- is going to be able to come up with branding that gives a reasonable idea to the consumer what they get for their money -- without tasting the product.
But like solid gold speaker cables, people will buy based on brand and branding, even if they might be able to make better decisions if forced to do a blind-test... (and, as they say -- if you can't tell the difference in a blind test, go for the cheaper one every time...).
Absolutely on age. I think the Taketsuru NAS is very good, for example (it's a blend of malts by Nikka, and available everywhere in Japan), for its ridiculously low price locally. Bruichladdich is consistently outputting both solid classic stuff (PC5-8) and interesting innovations (Bere Barley) all of which are less than a decade old.
The ones that consistently impress me are the "limited edition small run" houses like Rhum Rhum, Rum Nation, Velier and so on. The Rhum Rhum cask strength Liberation (the one with the lobster on it) is only 5 years old but (to me at least) fully justifies its very high price tag - this is what we want bottlers to do!
Whereas I remember a horizontal Islay 30+ year old tasting that left me thinking I was drinking wooded water - the price tags were purely a function of supply (none) and demand (there's a sort of vicious circle whereby the rarity makes the price go up, turning it into a Veblen good amongst wealthy non-amateurs). For the price of the night, I could have had a couple bottles of legendary Veliers...
Regarding buying without tasting, I'm done with that - generally I get people I trust (such as Stephane M. at la Maison du Whisky in Singapore for rum) to make some guiding recommendations, pay for a few shots and buy the best. I've had too many promising bottles left on the shelf to be used as expensive mixers, especially lately.
You're right that cognac and armagnac especially are still little known, I think because they are still very fragmented and small family businesses compared to scotch which is basically Diageo and the Japanese. A few houses (usually owned by the likes of LVMH) get away with monstruous pricing thanks to their extensive DFS exposure, but if you browse the Cognatheque (particularly the 30+ and 50+ sections) you'll find a lot of very interesting stuff at reasonable prices even including international shipping; although it might not be worth the risk of buying blind.
When it comes to Cognac, one house to keep an eye on is Tesseron. Eg their "lot 76" XO. Also A. E. Doer have a very good XO series.
When it comes to single malt, my favourite so far was a Springbank Madeira wood (aged in Madeira barrels). Apparently the Madeira people didn't like them using the name in marketing and/or the barrels for whisky, so they had to stop producing it. The "normal" Sprinkbank does very little for me tastewise, but the extra fruit/sweetness from the Madeira really made it interesting. Since I've come a across a few other's aged on Barolo barrels etc that are quite good - but I've yet to find one that was as appealing to my palate. And which wasn't so expensive that it becomes silly.
Ah, Tesseron is the nobility... they probably have the largest collection of old vintages of all the Grande Champagne houses! But you pay for the privilege... I once had a vertical tasting in a Swiss supermarket (Manor Geneva) by accident, I just wanted to chat to the sales guy and one thing led to another (and to the Lot 29). It was good but not good enough for the price tag. I'd say the marginal price increase to marginal value ratio becomes unattractive for me around the 53. Maybe when I've sold my company for millions things will look different.
In Springbank I love the Longrow CV - it's my default request in a bar with limited interesting choices because it's still relatively cheap. Very Islay-like though (a lot of peat, and probably the opposite of your sherried sweetness) which is not to everyone's taste. Haven't had it in 3 years so YMMV. I'll keep an eye out for the Madeira, although generally not a fan of port or sherry finishes (except Mortlach, whose sheer brutality is somehow enhanced by the lingering smell).
In terms of wine finish, Renegade (another Bruichladdich experiment!) used to make a series of rums finished in great wine casks - I particularly remember the Black Rock (itself legendary) finished in Petrus, and still kick myself for not buying a few bottles back then... they were really cheap! On the other hand I bought some Iwai "Chateau Mars" finish at Hasegawa last week, and that was literally all nose and nothing else, despite the glowing review from Nonjatta. Hit and miss...
> it matters a lot what the barrels have been used for before
Which is a good thing, because it allows distillers to be creative, adding different notes to both scent and taste. Quite a few whiskies nowadays do tell you what kind of cask they were aged in.
Bourbon and sherry have traditionally been popular choices, but wine, port, cognac and rum barrels are also being used recently.
"But like solid gold speaker cables, people will buy based on brand and branding"
I am not so sure. I recently tried a high quality Belgian whiskey. It was smooth like a good single malt, but just didn't taste right. There were a lot of flavors, but they were not in harmony like a good Scotch. But the Belgians haven't been doing it for long. (Maybe the fact I am Scottish biases me somewhat).
A lot of the newer distilleries have not found their balance yet (including, imh and controversial o, Kavalan and Amrut, whose extraordinary ratings I do not quite understand) and part of the reason I keep coming back to Scotland is to find that balance.
I didn't mean to imply that there aren't regional differences between different distilleries etc. For some reason (taste among the makers, climate, soil whatever) does vary quite consistently.
I recall there were some people out in Normandie that made a pretty good, smoked single malt, not entirely unlike a decent Islay whisky.
I meant more branding in terms of "Distilerry X, N years old".
Just as good champagne really is quite different from most others sparkling wines (although, I have a hard time accepting the idea that soil etc is as important for distilled spirits as it is for wine...).
Wood chips are a very common method most home brewers use. Also Budweiser is beechwood aged using chips [1], and is hardly unique in using chips (though rarely does anyone else use beechwood).
For the most part people like high age counts for the same reason they want high megapixel counts, it is a comparable number that gives them at least the illusion of control, and rational differentiation.
Wood chips in the barrel seems so easy to try I almost feel like it can't possibly not have been tried before and proven not to work.
Might be something along the same lines as the brewing temperature/ timing of coffee (replace wood surface area for temperature)- hotter water extracts everything faster, but some things faster than others. A longer but colder brew will extract the hard-to-get compounds in larger relative proportion.
Chipping barrels with toasted chips is extremely common in distilleries that are just getting started. Also, smaller barrels and artificial heat/cool cycles. Take some distillery tours, you'll learn a lot of shortcuts to producing passable products.
Oak is used in winemaking to vary the color, flavor, tannin profile and texture of wine. It can be introduced in the form of a barrel during the fermentation or aging periods, or as free-floating chips or staves added to wine fermented in a vessel like stainless steel.
Cognac is moving in a different direction: increasing the age required of the youngest au-de-vies for VSOP and XO characterisation. As rum is generally blended, like Cognac - that's probably a better analogy than single malt whisky. This why for example bottles of the same series of Cognac, or brand rums like Havana Club 7 anos can taste (almost) the same even when produced from different raw stocks - they are blended to meet a certain taste.