Cabin Still-Ducks Unlimited

[Honkerman]

I was recently given a bottle of Cabin Still Kentucky Straight Bourbon in a Ducks Unlimited "Wings across the Continent" commemorative porcelain decantor. Distilled by Stitzel- Weller, 4/5 of a quart corked in 1973 and had aged 5 years when it was bottled. It appears to be unopened, but the tax label has been broke, this mostly because the top portion of the cork has a decorative duck on it and it has broken off of the main body of the cork. I guess it has to be broken to get it open, looks as if it got knocked around and it came off. I can spell the bourbon a little if I smell the cork. Question is, will this be any good to drink, will air have gotten to it over time and "skunked" it up? And what is the value of this commerorative decantor, it came in the original box as well?

[TNbourbon]

I was recently given a bottle of Cabin Still Kentucky Straight Bourbon in a Ducks Unlimited "Wings across the Continent" commemorative porcelain decantor. Distilled by Stitzel- Weller, 4/5 of a quart corked in 1973 and had aged 5 years when it was bottled. It appears to be unopened, but the tax label has been broke, this mostly because the top portion of the cork has a decorative duck on it and it has broken off of the main body of the cork. I guess it has to be broken to get it open, looks as if it got knocked around and it came off. I can spell the bourbon a little if I smell the cork. Question is, will this be any good to drink, will air have gotten to it over time and "skunked" it up? And what is the value of this commerorative decantor, it came in the original box as well?

As to drinkability, there's really no way to know beyond drinking it. If the seal was broken relatively recently, chances are good it's unharmed. If it happened long since, it's still probably drinkable, just not at its best.

For questions of value, it's best to start here:

http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/announcement.php?f=9&a=3

Folks here mostly are interested in drinking the contents, not valuing it. Mostly, our concerns about value are as buyers.

[Honkerman]

Thank you for the help, now if I can get my wife convinced it won't kill me because it's old and has a busted off cork I'll be in good shape. Appreciate the help, any other advice? I'm all ears.

[cowdery]

One of the country's largest dealers in whiskey decanters is Heartland of Kentucky, in Lebanon Junction, near Bardstown. I met the owners, Roy and Cordie Willis, this weekend. They are the decanter experts and real nice people. You can email them at heartland@ka.net or visit their website at www.decantersandsteins.com

By the way, professional dealers cannot and do not sell decanters with whiskey in them. That market is strictly on the web, i.e., eBay.

[Jazzhead]

I'm once bitten, twice shy when it comes to old decanters. More like three times bitten, so no more for me. I think with perhaps one exception every "dusty bottle" I've found in glass - some from the seventies - has been drinkable. Not so with decanters. Each has had the same "musty" characteristic that I assume comes from prolonged contact with the porcelain. Another culprit is the cork, which is invariably dry and breaks off, but I've taken great care to remove the cork intact, and the musty taste still remains.

I know a local liquor store that has a back room filled with seventies-era decanters, from all manner of distillers - S-W, Hoffman, Michters, Wild Turkey and others. At this point, I won't touch 'em, not for consumption purposes anyway. I have a couple adorning the bar, but sadly, their days of drinkability are long gone.

[Honkerman]

Thanks Jazzhead, when you mention "undrinkable" are you referring to taste or is it going to be dangerous to drink?

[cowdery]

It just tastes bad. It's no more dangerous than bourbon ever is.

[Jazzhead]

Yeah, it's a dustiness/mustiness. I'm told that decanting the stuff into glass and letting it air out can help, but I haven't had much luck. It's not unsafe to drink, it just tastes bad in the same way that skunky beer does.

[Big Chipper]

I've had the opposite experience. I won 2 decanter bottle of Old Cabin Still and 3 decanters of Old Fitzgerald Prime from the early '70s from eBay. I drank each one of them with the reverence I usually hold for PVW. They were all excellent and you can taste the family resemblance between the old stuff and PVW bottlings. Drink it!