Yes, age is important but you can put new whisky (top quality) into a “spent” cask and leave it there as long as you want – age will have lttle or no impact on the quality of the product – a bit like using spent teabags to make tea!!

An ex-Chivas employee tells me that Chivas have recently stopped recording the “maturation potential” of casks so their claims age and guarantees of quality do not stack up IMHO – time will tell!!