Barrel for at least two years in new, charred oak containers. Other forms of whisky aged in used barrels cannot be called "straight". International laws require any whisky bearing the label "Scotch" to be distilled and matured in Scotland for a minimum of three years and one day in oak casks. By Canadian law, Canadian whiskies must "be aged in small wood for not less than three years", and "small wood" is defined as a wood barrel not exceeding capacity. Since the U.S. law requires the use of new barrels for several popular types of whisky, which is not typically considered
Scotch whisky bottling. For a variety of reasons, some independent brands do not identify which facility distilled the whisky in the bottle. They may instead identify only the general geographical area of the source, or they simply market the product using their own brand name without identifying their source. This may, in some cases, be simply to give the independent bottling company the flexibility to purchase from multiple distillers without changing their labels. According to the Scotch Whisky Association, Scotch whisky evolved from a Scottish drink called "uisge beatha", which means "water of life". The earliest record of distillation in Scotland occurred