Can modern distilling techniques produce quality Scotch in significantly less time? My brother-in-law is opening a distillery in Canada, which has got us discussing whisky on the regular. And by the sounds of it it looks like there are certain techniques that can be used these days that 'age' whiskies faster than has classically been done.

So what this has got me wondering is whether the 12 or 18 year old labels of some Scotches are more of a placebo, and a product of popular opinion on how Scotch should be distilled? In other words, the history of Scotch has created a situation where the consumer demands a specific age, when in reality it's not really necessary. And so Scottish distillers use this aging method more for image than necessity.
As alluded to by Eric Shain, this is more a matter of the mathematics of aging than anything about the distilling process.

The key trick going on here is that years of aging have been standardized with respect to interactions with the barrel they are aging in.  While time is certainly important when it comes to aging whiskey, much more important is contact with the barrel.  As shown here, conversions are done based on the internal surface area to volume ratio of the containers used to age the whiskey.  A greater surface-area-to-volume ratio means more rapid interaction between the whiskey and the barrel and therefore faster acquisition of the flavors desired from aging (though the different parameters will almost certainly yield at least subtly different results).

It is important to note, however, that this is a trade-off.  Yes, you can age whiskey faster using smaller/higher-ratio barrels but you'd need many more to make the same amount of whiskey.  So for a smaller producer who wants to match their demand as best they can, using small barrels can be a good way to sell longer aged whiskey more quickly and in more manageable quantities.  On the other hand, for a larger producer who expects to have a large demand down the road, full-size barrels are likely a better option.

So ultimately, this is more a matter of the fact that "years" of aging has an implicit "in standard size barrels" as a part of it, we just don't generally think of it that way.