agestatement

Age statement refers to the practice of labeling a spirit with the age of the youngest whiskey or other aged ingredient used in the final blend. This can be compared to the statement of "aged for" or "aged" which refer to the age of the oldest component used in a blend. The age on the label represents the length of time that a portion of the spirit has been aged.

In the case of whiskey, for example, a whiskey labeled as an "8-year-old" may contain a portion of whiskey that is 8 years old, but the total product has not necessarily been aged for that long. Conversely, a "straight" whiskey has all of its aged components older than three years. If a whiskey meets the bottling requirements for whiskey, typically a product can be labeled as being older than it actually is. However, there can be labeling representations of the ages of specific grain or single-barrel selections.

Age statements do not indicate that the product has been aged for the duration stated on the label. They do not dictate the entire length of time, as the mention that a multi-grain whiskey has at least some component of the whiskey that has been aged corresponds to the period within its age statement. Some producers release lines that include "no age statement" to signal that their spirits do not conform to the age statement.