How long

[independant]

I think we all may do this. You have a special bottle and you have that last few pours and you just can bring yourself to finish it off. What are some bottle that you have held back and how long have you set on them?

[spun_cookie]

VVOF 12 yr... I sip that puppy at a snails pace. THe next would be my 02 and 03 Staggs... the 02 is down to the very end too... I know the Willett 27 yr unfilteredbarrel proof I have (#16 of 24 bottles) will be on my shelf for years...

There are a few a slow pour so folks have a chance to taste them.

[MarkEdwards]

I think we all may do this. You have a special bottle and you have that last few pours and you just can bring yourself to finish it off. What are some bottle that you have held back and how long have you set on them?

Not quite what you are asking, but I have yet to open the '08 GTS because it didn't have a buddy as backup. Today I found a source of GTS, so I have a spare. I will be trying one this week...

[MarkEdwards]

I think we all may do this. You have a special bottle and you have that last few pours and you just can bring yourself to finish it off. What are some bottle that you have held back and how long have you set on them?

Now, more along the lines of what you are asking, I have a bottle of Lot B that I am taking my time on. Three months so far, and counting.

[BBQ+Bourbon]

I have a very good lot B that's down to 1/2 full, and I've stopped drinking it. After they get to the halfway point, I have trouble drinking any further.

[loose proton]

...After they get to the halfway point, I have trouble drinking any further.

That's when you get a second bottle, and can then enjoy quaffing the last treasured drop of the open bottle.

[silverfish]

Heh, I've used the "halfway rule" myself. After a

while you (or at least I) say "Y'know, half a bottle

is still quite a bit. Maybe I'll go down to a third."

Of course, after that, a quarter bottle seems like

a good stopping point. That's when I usually draw

the line (for real!)

[TNbourbon]

For the record, I've certainly taken my time -- sometimes 2-3 years!:bigeyes:-- finishing some bottles, but generally either because: 1) I had 40-50 bottles open at the time ( I don't even HAVE 40-50 bottles today), and drank something different every night; or 2) I just didn't care for it, and needed to find a vatting, mixer, or other in order to get it gone.

I've also opened some very fine (and valuable) bottles -- e.g., VOF BIBs from the '40s-'60, Wellers from the same era, '50-'60s OGD BIB, et al -- that were essentially irreplaceable. Counter-intuitively, I never husbanded those bottles in order to 'make them last' because, to me, part of their appeal was as time machines, and pouring some VOF every night for a week or two, and into some Coke(http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=123328&postcount=489), etc., could carry me vicariously back in time to my father's and grandfathers' days, when the whiskey I was drinking was an everyday standard. A very good way to find just how permanently something attracts is to experience it with regularity, and discover whether its value broadens or diminishes.

Anyway, my advice is to empty those bottles. In the case of currently available bourbons, buy when the current bottle drops below half, as LP notes. If older, harder-to-replace bottlings, enjoying consecutive pours will tell you more about your likes and dislikes than occasional, stingy sips that neither satisfy nor accumulate.

So, Em, a challenge: unless you hope to share that VVOF with someone specific AND have a time/place in mind (and in sight -- don't imagine it won't change at least some as it ages, now that it's open), live with that bottle for as many evenings as it takes to find the bottom, and enrich yourself with some timeless decadence.

[Rughi]

There's no real need to blow through favorite bottles just to keep ahead of deleterious oxidation. When a bottle that I want to reference in the future starts getting low, I decant to 4oz. bottles and top up completely. This essentially stops the clock on the whiskey, just like it was in an unopened bottle.

Four ounce decants are also a great way to make a gift of a whiskey sampler, which I like to do.

Roger

[spun_cookie]

So, Em, a challenge: unless you hope to share that VVOF with someone specific AND have a time/place in mind (and in sight -- don't imagine it won't change at least some as it ages, now that it's open), live with that bottle for as many evenings as it takes to find the bottom, and enrich yourself with some timeless decadence.

[silverfish]

Four ounce decants are also a great way to make a gift of a whiskey sampler, which I like to do.

[TNbourbon]

There's no real need to blow through favorite bottles just to keep ahead of deleterious oxidation. When a bottle that I want to reference in the future starts getting low, I decant to 4oz. bottles and top up completely. This essentially stops the clock on the whiskey, just like it was in an unopened bottle.

Four ounce decants are also a great way to make a gift of a whiskey sampler, which I like to do.

Roger

[Rughi]

Tim, do I understand this right - part of your goal is that you want to honor the memory of drinkers who didn't particularly like the whiskey that got them buzzed?

I really like the whiskey I drink and prefer to be able to revisit, share them with others, and refresh my memories of them as I age. Ensuring their rapid extinction isn't a goal for me.

To each his own, I guess.

Roger

[silverfish]

Thought I'd share the following:

20 bottles with polyseal cap from ebottles

$50.60 + 16.78 shipping = $67.38 total

20 bottles with polyseal cap from specialtybottle.com

$12.00 + 13.74 ups = $25.74

specialtybottle.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=52

[TNbourbon]

Tim, do I understand this right - part of your goal is that you want to honor the memory of drinkers who didn't particularly like the whiskey that got them buzzed?..

Well, almost, Roger: part of my goal is to honor the memory of those who DID like the bottlings that likely fell to me only because of the few who didn't.

[funknik]

I have a VWFRR that I've had open since May and only half gone. It is by far the longest I've ever had a single bottle open and I achieve this through intentionally denying it exists: it's at the back of my cabinet, back-to and I never allow myself to pour from it. It was agift from Dr. Entropy and I've never seen another although I know they're more common in other parts of the country . . . If I could find this around here, it would be trouble.

[JamesW]

I have a VWFRR that I've had open since May and only half gone. It is by far the longest I've ever had a single bottle open and I achieve this through intentionally denying it exists: it's at the back of my cabinet, back-to and I never allow myself to pour from it. It was agift from Dr. Entropy and I've never seen another although I know they're more common in other parts of the country . . . If I could find this around here, it would be trouble.

I agree. My oldest open bottle is also my VWFRR. I have one bunkered now and so I may take a nip once in a while but it is getting dangerously low and until I find more I'm being very cautious.

[BBQ+Bourbon]

That's when you get a second bottle, and can then enjoy quaffing the last treasured drop of the open bottle.

Normally I would do that, and I have another Lot B. This bottle seems to be better than your standard Lot B. It was intended for a local restaurant but accidentally wound up at a liquor store.

The other bottle will be easier to finish:)

[ratcheer]

I am awful about this. I have bottles of Henry McKenna 10-yr BIB and Elmer T. Lee that I bought in Kentucky in 2005 that I keep holding back on. But, the worst is that I have bottles of Remy Martin XO, Grand MArnier 150th Anniversary, and Courvoisier VSOP that I bought on a Caribbean vacation in 1990 that I am still nursing! I may have some other old open bottles, as well.

If something is exceptionally good, I make it last. :skep:

Tim

[silverfish]

After ordering some of the bottles, I thought I'd share

what I came up with. This "sampler pack" is an x-mas

gift for a friend. These are 2 oz bottles with labels

stuck on. They're in a PO box but they're not going

via the mail - it happened to be just the right size to

hold 5 bottles!

From L to R:

Pappy 20 yr

Havana Club Anejo Reserva Rum

Hirsch 16 yr

Death's Door whiskey

GTStagg (2007) 144.8 proof

[gblick]

That's so cool that you printed up little labels and put them on the bottles.

[silverfish]

Thanks. The hardest part was sizing the labels I cropped so

they'd fit properly. Printed 'em up on a 8.5" x 11" full sheet

label (from OfficeMax) and cut them out.

Between the bottle & labels, it's a fairly inexpensive gift

(not counting the contents, that is!) and relatively easy

to make.