Yes, the mechanics of it I know. It's just a food manufacturing process like any other. Methods of fermentation can very little, it's a known and optimised process. Likewise distillation, you don't reconstruct several hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of equipment in a hurry. In addition the distilleries make a big deal of tradition, same stills used since Year Dot, etc. Barley you specify from the maltsters, the first is selected every year, the same as grist for flour. Casks will be the same, you can just buy new American oak, first fill sherry, bourbon, beer, the lot. You put it together like any recipe, and the flavour profiles you can analyse in the usual ways. Much as the distillers would like to kid you that it's magic and alchemy, it's just a manufacturing and assemblage process. Dial in what you want, blend it accordingly. No harder than me making a strawberry yogurt and deciding whether my flavour needs to be jammy, fresh, sharp, sweet, ripe, green, etc. What I'm more interested in, and what's far more significant, is the shifts in the market, how that is understood and steered by marketing, and so on.