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Stagnant Bourbon Rotation


alcoholica
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Many of us have several bottle open at any given time. I try to limit mine to 7 or less, because I don't drink very often and when I do, it's only a pour or two. 

 

Anyway, I have a half empty bottle of OGD 86 that hasn't been opened in a few months. Let me preface that I really do like the 86pf version a lot for the price. This pour started woody, earthy, and an almost chemical finish. I figured he bottle was spent and that I'd have to make some cocktails with it. Not wanting to be a quitter, I kept at it. And the damned thing started to open up, slowly. The wood and earthy notes faded to allow more sweetness. The chemical finish faded into peels, like apple and even potato. It kept opening to where I got more sweetness and spice and an almost almond note (maybe the infamous marzipan). 

 

Has this ever happened to anyone else where a half emptied bottled needed some air to open up?

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In my experience I mostly tend to think of it as more likely being an issue of wonky taste buds, usually from something else consumed. 

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I think there are plenty of people that think that bottles “open up” with some air time. I would also suggest that being open too long, especially with a lower amount left in the bottle, can eventually have very negative effects. The more air in a bottle the more oxidization over time. While I do agree that some bottles get better after being open for some period of time, I have also seen great bottles really fall apart after being open too long. Quite a while ago I started using 2 ounce sample bottles and filling them any time a good bottle started getting low. This prevents excessive oxidization but also builds a fun stash of sample bottles to pull from in the future for a one off pour. 

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It's more likely that you changed. Whiskey is remarkably stable.

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I hafta agree with flahute.   

Although I'm fairly certain 'oxidation' of whiskey actually is a thing, I'm also pretty sure it's quite subtle, and takes an extremely long time with lots of 'air/per whiskey-volume' to become anything most folx would be able to notice.

I can count on the thumbs of one hand the number of bottles I've been able to note a change over the time I've had it opened... and that was almost entirely on the nose (maybe all of it was nose, since it's very hard to differentiate between smells and flavors).    That is, of course just one man's experience, and alcoholica may have waaaay better taste buddies than mine....

Edited by Richnimrod
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15 hours ago, alcoholica said:

Has this ever happened to anyone else where a half emptied bottled needed some air to open up?

Yes, it has, subtle and not a great difference, just a bit rounder with harsh notes somewhat diminished.  I should also say I used to have dozens of bottles opened and didn't have any particular rotation so some were ignored for awhile, particularly if I didn't care for them very much.  I did notice the change though and it was almost always for the better and when it happened I decanted the remainder into smaller bottles to keep it at it's "prime".

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39 minutes ago, squire said:

Yes, it has, subtle and not a great difference, just a bit rounder with harsh notes somewhat diminished.  I should also say I used to have dozens of bottles opened and didn't have any particular rotation so some were ignored for awhile, particularly if I didn't care for them very much.  I did notice the change though and it was almost always for the better and when it happened I decanted the remainder into smaller bottles to keep it at it's "prime".

Yeah, this was just weird in the fact that it tasted like it was going bad only to revert back to normal tasting. Maybe it just needed some fresh air

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