How slow is a ester reaction without a catalyst? (in a whiskey barrel?)

The typical description of a high school esterification reaction of an alcohol and an organic acid uses a strong acid catalyst like $\ce{H2SO4}$; otherwise the reaction is said to be "slow".


I would like to know, **how slow**? For context I am interested in the esterification reaction which happen in the time frame of distillation of whiskey and whiskey maturing in a barrel. 


New spirit (what goes into a barrel to age and become whiskey) is approximately 60% EtOH, 39% water and less than 1% (I think) other alcohols, and organic acids like acetic and lactic acid.


**How long would this system take to come to equilibrium, without any catalyst?** (Hours, days, months, years?)




The best info I could come up with is from wikipedia (with no citations for the relevant sections)


[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer–Speier\_esterification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Speier_esterification)


For reaction with an excess of one reactant and an acid catalysts, it says: 



> 
> "Typical reaction times vary from 1–10 hours at temperatures of 60-110
>  °C."
> 
> 
> 


Later it talks about ester reactions in wine: 



> 
> "Of course, when compared to sulfuric acid conditions, the acid
>  conditions in a wine are mild, so yield is low (often in tenths or
>  hundredths of a percentage point by volume) and take years for ester
>  to accumulate."
> 
> 
> 


Which is a bit of an Apple to Oranges comparison, and is not whiskey, but it gives an indication of 'Yes, slowwwwww'. Or something like that.


 0