If you are lucky enough to have more than a couple of bottles of Whiskey open at any one time then you might be familiar with the following questions.
How long does an open bottle of whiskey last before oxidation affects the profile of the liquid? How many 2/3rds empty bottles can you stuff into the cupboard space.
Am I finishing this bottle just because its there so long?.. and, I’d love to keep some of this fantastic bottle of whiskey to enjoy much later when I would appreciate it all over again..
You get a new bottle and you would love to open it but cant really because of the number of open bottles you already have..
I personally would have 20 or so bottles open and some have been open for 6 to 12 months. I also wanted to open new bottles but felt I should finish off some of the older ones first.
I found myself drinking some bottles because I felt they were becoming overly affected by exposure to air. They had lost their intensity compared to when first opened..
I definitely enjoyed the first 1/3 of many of the bottles more so than the last 1/3rd.
Hence a decision last month to take 200 ml of each bottle and basically re-bottle them to enjoy later.
Its a win-win as I can take this 200 ml bottle in a years time and it will not have had any more air interaction and I will enjoy it better as absence of it will have make the palate more appreciative!
200ml is a decent size, no point doing it with 50ml bottles. It is, however, still small enough to be fully appreciated..
Its also great way of sharing with friends as decent sized bottle share or presents.
Another big advantage is that many times you hanker after a particular whiskey you have had, but you have to buy / open another full bottle. However if you had saved 200 ml from last time you had it… you can dive into that instead!
You will also get bottles occasionally that, due to cost or scarcity, you are not likely to see again and this is ideal way to keep enjoying them for years.
As some people know I was big fan of a particular Single Cask Teeling. I even have the cask number off by heart! #10820 … So I wanted to make that stretch out. The other option was to hold on the bottle itself that was 3 thirds filled with air for couple of years.. not good for sherried whiskeys.
By the way, peated whiskeys suffer the most from being kept in half empty bottles for too long.. I’ll never keep a peated bottle for more than 4/5 months.
So…. I purchased 100 bottles, not too expensive, around £80 and have started to fill them.
Only about 15 so far but plan to do it for each bottle I open from now on.
Another idea worth considering is to fill the 200 ml bottle as soon as you open the fresh bottle. There are two advantages to that.
1) For many whiskeys, especially dense heavily finished or fortified wine fully matured, they need to have air in the bottle or glass for some time before they become properly balanced. By taking 200 ml out straight away you will achieve this balance much quicker.
2) You are also storing fresher whiskey in your 200ml bottle and it well happily sit there for years and years.
Couple of points.. do your research into the appropriate caps. There are few choices and some are better for longer term storage than others.
I have had the massive displeasure of being part of a bottle share where they used rubber style tops which completely ruined the Whiskey.
Also and perhaps obvious but never use plastic!
Your whiskeys, that may have come originally in brown or green bottles, will now be in clear glass bottles so proper storage is even more important because of the effect of light.
Anyway.. Said I’d share these thoughts.. May not be for you but just an idea that may prove useful to someone out there in whiskey land 🤗
Slainte….
WhiskeyTalk2U 