Scotch Neat Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I dont worry about such things as oxidation or the loss of alcohol, just keep the bottle right side up in a dark place and it will be fine.And if by some slim chance it does go bad, pour it out and open another bottle.My oldest open bottle was a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue, 1/4 full opened forgotten and discovered 10 years later. The cork fell apart when I tried to open it but after getting it out with a cork screw the scotch was lovely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JVande Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I 100% think whiskey can change from the first pop and pour to say the 3rd pour 3 weeks down the road, due to the introduction of air. Wheaters love some air. Also agree that what you eat earlier in the day can affect your palate for the rest of the day. I don't recall a whiskey going "bad" due to oxidation but have noticed some go a bit flatter after a year and with less than 15% left in the bottle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsrudd Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I don't recall a whiskey going "bad" due to oxidation but have noticed some go a bit flatter after a year and with less than 15% left in the bottle.I think "flatter" is the perfect way to describe what happens. I have particularly noticed this when trying old bottlings of bourbon at bars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbronwyn Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 If said it before, but if I could buy the last 1/4bottle of eagle rare, id buy it more often. I always open it and have a glass, think meh.revisit sparingly over the next 6 months or so, then finish the bottle and go straight out and get another one. Open it, think meh again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I always prefer the last 1/4 of a bottle of a bottle of EC12 to first 3/4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclebunk Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I dont worry about such things as oxidation or the loss of alcohol, just keep the bottle right side up in a dark place and it will be fine.And if by some slim chance it does go bad, pour it out and open another bottle.My oldest open bottle was a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue, 1/4 full opened forgotten and discovered 10 years later. The cork fell apart when I tried to open it but after getting it out with a cork screw the scotch was lovely.My precise experience as well. I still have a small amount (perhaps a quarter bottle) of Highland Park 12 gifted to me by someone special who was visiting from Scotland roughly nine years ago and every time I have a small pour I am delighted all over again, with not a single trace of decline in the quality of the bottle that I can detect. Many other bottles have been open more than five years and have similarly held up just as well. It's simply not something I give a moment's thought to, especially with so many different open bottles in the cabinet. I say, drink 'em when you want to and all will be fine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black mamba Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 I 100% think whiskey can change from the first pop and pour to say the 3rd pour 3 weeks down the road, due to the introduction of air. Wheaters love some air. Also agree that what you eat earlier in the day can affect your palate for the rest of the day. I don't recall a whiskey going "bad" due to oxidation but have noticed some go a bit flatter after a year and with less than 15% left in the bottle.This response was on page 3 of 4, but so perfectly coincided with my experience that I chose to quote it before reaching the end of the thread. When they reach 15-20% fill and have been open close to a year, I use them for vatting. I love vatting. I once told my brother I'd try anything once, and he said, "You'll try anything twice!" I took it as a compliment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fozzy71 Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 ....... I love vatting....... ditto, it really makes this hobby a lot more interesting mixing up things you like, or don't, to come up with something you like more. I had never considered it when I first started on scotch, then irish, then bourbon but I really enjoy mixing up various things and keep half a dozen or so of 750's, a few 375's, and a couple 200ml bottles for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazz June Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 I never seem to enjoy a drink from a bottle right after it is opened. I have taken to opening them and letting it sit for a few days before even trying them and they seem to get noticeably better after two weeks or so. I figured I would search for a thread on this topic and found this one. I am surprised to read that many do not have this experience. It has happened with so many bottles that I find it hard to believe it is just different perceptions on different days, all in the same direction, but maybe I am falling victim to confirmation bias. Interested to hear other's thoughts, in particular how long a bottle needs to be open before it is "just right" (although it sounds like many people think the answer is about 1 second). As for a bottle being open too long, the only experience I can think of in particular was a single malt scotch I had open for about 6 years between drinks. Stored properly its entire life, delicious when tried initially, but after a 6 year gap, it seemed to have definitely lost something. Cork also broke and had to be strained out, so that certainly didn't help. I now track when bottles are opened and try not to have too many open at the same time, which can be hard to maintain at times with so many good bottles to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry in WashDC Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 6 minutes ago, Jazz June said: I never seem to enjoy a drink from a bottle right after it is opened. I have taken to opening them and letting it sit for a few days before even trying them and they seem to get noticeably better after two weeks or so. I figured I would search for a thread on this topic and found this one. I am surprised to read that many do not have this experience. It has happened with so many bottles that I find it hard to believe it is just different perceptions on different days, all in the same direction, but maybe I am falling victim to confirmation bias. Interested to hear other's thoughts, in particular how long a bottle needs to be open before it is "just right" (although it sounds like many people think the answer is about 1 second). As for a bottle being open too long, the only experience I can think of in particular was a single malt scotch I had open for about 6 years between drinks. Stored properly its entire life, delicious when tried initially, but after a 6 year gap, it seemed to have definitely lost something. Cork also broke and had to be strained out, so that certainly didn't help. I now track when bottles are opened and try not to have too many open at the same time, which can be hard to maintain at times with so many good bottles to try. Hhhhmmm. [ASIDE - I miss Squire sometimes. His posts early on this thread are one reason.] Back when I first tried OGD 114 neat, mostly because I had just read about it here on SB, I found it hot, harsh, and hardly flavorful. I went to the kitchen to get some water and ice in which to pour it. When I picked up the whiskey glass, I was hit with a fruity, blossomy aroma wafting from the glass - which had been sitting under a table lamp BTW. Took a small sip. Ambrosia. In other words, sometimes a bourbon tastes fine to me on the first pour right out of the bottle although I've noticed it is mostly true with sub BIBs. Others have to sit, but in either case, there does not seem to be a consistency or a pattern from bourbon to bourbon or even from pour to pour. That scotch bottle may be an outlier and perhaps due more to a bad cork allowing LOTS of air in, thus allowing lots of oxidation and evaporation to occur than to the length of time it sat there. Had that been a good cork, it - like my wife's Lagavulin 16 which is still potable after all these years - might have been fine. That scotch? She now drinks bourbon with me so it gets hit only at Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kane Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 1 hour ago, Jazz June said: I never seem to enjoy a drink from a bottle right after it is opened. I have taken to opening them and letting it sit for a few days before even trying them and they seem to get noticeably better after two weeks or so. I figured I would search for a thread on this topic and found this one. I am surprised to read that many do not have this experience. It has happened with so many bottles that I find it hard to believe it is just different perceptions on different days, all in the same direction, but maybe I am falling victim to confirmation bias. Interested to hear other's thoughts, in particular how long a bottle needs to be open before it is "just right" (although it sounds like many people think the answer is about 1 second). As for a bottle being open too long, the only experience I can think of in particular was a single malt scotch I had open for about 6 years between drinks. Stored properly its entire life, delicious when tried initially, but after a 6 year gap, it seemed to have definitely lost something. Cork also broke and had to be strained out, so that certainly didn't help. I now track when bottles are opened and try not to have too many open at the same time, which can be hard to maintain at times with so many good bottles to try. Try putting aside a small sample when you open the bottle, then do a SBS a few weeks/months later with the bottle. I do this all the time; some bottles get better, some worse, all change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinjoe Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 9 hours ago, Kane said: Try putting aside a small sample when you open the bottle, then do a SBS a few weeks/months later with the bottle. I do this all the time; some bottles get better, some worse, all change. Which one changes? The small sample bottle, or the larger, original bottle...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bourserker Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 On 6/30/2015 at 7:05 PM, GaryT said: I do think that some air time will influence the flavor a bit, but also that our perception changes quite a bit over time (and from day to day). I had a system where when a bottle was opened for 2+ yrs, and half full or less, I'd decant it . . . just to be safe. This became "work", and I don't bother with it anymore. I have some bottles that have been open since 2011, and I haven't seen any issues. On the other hand, I've had bottles opened for just a couple of months when I noticed the cork wasn't keeping tight (but I just replace the cork with a VacuVin stopper). For bottle sources, from time to time I pick up 375s or 200s of Evan Williams Black Label, or WT101 (and when I'm done drinking, I keep the bottle!) Yes, use smaller bottles from whiskies like EWB, WT 101, ER10, BT and whatever else comes in glass. That's what I do for decanting...I just thought I was being cheap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bourserker Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 Does more air change the flavor? Is it differences in palette on different days? Who knows. When I started drinking whiskey years ago I thought air was the main thing that changed the flavor, but now I'm not so sure. I've seen the thread on here where someone did the experiment to test the air time theory and concluded that it made little to no difference, and I'm inclined to agree with that conclusion based on my personal experience. I have had many bottles open for months, and a few for over a year and found very little to no difference in the taste. There's only been a couple of bottles that I thought changed some over time and I don't really have an explanation for them. One of them is not a bourbon, it's a scotch. I like Laphroaig 10 year and the 10 cask strength, and after having multiple bottles of these open for a period of time I have found that the peat seems to dissipate with air time. So anyway, I think as long as the bottle is sealed well with the supplied cork or screw top and stored in a dark place you're probably good to go. Me personally, I have adopted the "just drink it" policy, so I rarely have bottles sit in my cupboard for very long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kane Posted December 17, 2017 Share Posted December 17, 2017 15 hours ago, smokinjoe said: Which one changes? The small sample bottle, or the larger, original bottle...? Well played sir But actually this question passes the "Newton's flaming laser sword" test and I shall commence preparations for a 3-way SBS with the next bottle I open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryT Posted December 17, 2017 Share Posted December 17, 2017 14 hours ago, Bourserker said: Yes, use smaller bottles from whiskies like EWB, WT 101, ER10, BT and whatever else comes in glass. That's what I do for decanting...I just thought I was being cheap I would call that "frugal, wise and efficient" Besides - seems silly to me to buy an empty bottle (an empty 200 mL bottle on Amazon is going to run $2 give or take, when for just $3 more you can get a 200 mL bottle filled with EWBL - seems like a no brainer to me!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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