Why do we get stressed out with the thought of aging?

From the moment we’re born, we age. Therefore, aging occurs every second, minute, hour, day, month and year we draw breath. If we experience it our entire lives, don’t we ever get used to it?

Hmmm –something tells me there’s more at work than just gaining maturity.

How about we look at this maturing process by asking what makes us wiser? Do we gain wisdom through experience or does wisdom and age simply always walk together along life’s pathway? Maybe it’s a combination of experience and age, maybe?

If gaining years makes us uneasy, why doesn’t life’s experiences and the wisdom gained through such happenings settle the unease we feel about aging?

Once again, I think there’s more at work here and perhaps it’s a sense of something lost? We lose the innocence of youth as we leave our teen years and enter those interesting 20s and 30s. People come together, families are started, careers begun and the enjoyment of raising a family is central to that aging thing. And through all of these life experiences, we are losing time. Is that the cause of our age anxiety?

But, in a few years, parents are empty nesters and that aging thing has suddenly brought new dynamics into their lives — meaning grandchildren. And then, life’s work experiences cease and does that make us…just aged?

No! Like a fine wine that aged for years in a bourbon barrel our aging experience brings forth wonderful uniqueness and that makes everything — including aging — worthwhile.

Here’s what I believe — getting older doesn’t guaranty wisdom, the ability to handle any situation or anything else but it does mean we’re older.

Geez! I expect Aristotle would be very proud of my deep philosophical pondering. Or, is that his laughter I’m hearing instead of the usual ringing in my ears? It’s probably the latter.

Let’s switch gears and ask the same question about what aging brings to various beverages — a nice wine, an excellent scotch whisky and a special bourbon. Are they each special just because of aging or…?

Estancia Vineyard’s Pinot Noir is made from slow pressing the grapes and then small barrel aging the wine for up to a year. The result is a nice wine with tastes of raspberry/cherry flavors and a very soft finish. I’ve tasted this wine when it’s 5 years old and when it’s the current vintage and the results are not startlingly different. Has the wine’s structure/balance changed? Yes, a bit but there’s much more and that’s terrior — the soil, geography and climate where the grapes are grown.

Any decent wine will reflect its origin and Estancia’s Pinot Noir screams it comes from the central coast area of California. Aging the wine doesn’t change that uniqueness — aging might round out some flavors but the essence of the wine remains the same.

We’ve all seen and heard how wonderful bourbon becomes when it’s aged for a period of time and in this case, it’s true. Four Roses Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey reflects its aging process. The whiskey is oak aged for a minimum of eight years and the time is well spent because you are rewarded with a smooth beginning and a finish that’s a soft and gentle whisper.

With this whiskey, the barrel shares credit with time and infuses the drink with great vanilla and caramel tastes. The experience of sitting in an oak barrel for a number years brings a uniqueness to the spirit and dare I say a spiritual wisdom? That might be a bit much but you get the idea that aging is good for whiskey.

Well if we’re talking about maturing, let’s include Laphroaig Quarter Cask Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky because it’s aged for at least 12 years in quarter oak casks. These smaller sized barrels allows more of the liquid to touch the wood and that results in a scotch that’s almost a whisper to drink.

Of course, it’s scotch and this one has an alcohol by volume rating of 48 percent so it should not be taken lightly. However, the aging process blends in the great soft oakiness of the cask and when paired with a peating process, the result is a superlative scotch.

In all of these examples — the wine, the bourbon and the scotch — it’s the wisdom and experience of the maker that puts such a marvelous treat before us. In each of these examples, age has brought wisdom that is buttressed by experience.

That makes me take another look at this aging thing and I wonder if getting mature is simply that — we gain years and with them, hopefully enough wisdom and experience to make us unique enough for other folks to want to associate with us.

Perhaps that personal uniqueness is what makes some of us sweet, some of us semi-sweet and some of us, dry. Ain’t life grand?

Next week, wild rice…

As always, eat and drink in moderation but laugh with reckless abandon!

Cheers!