Crown Royal Bottle

[badboy69]

I recentely did some work for my Uncle he then gave me a bottle of Crown Royal that was in the box and never opened. He told me it was over 30 years old. Can you tell how old this really is by the Proof of Purchase seal or by the numbers on the bottle? The tax seal on the box is gone. Help and thank you in advance for any assistance you may offer.

D.M.

[Novice Scotch Fan]

I dont know even if I saw the bar code (if they had that 30yrs ago), but at the very least you will have to supply photos of the bottle labeling in question. Maybe someone else can help out on this.

[Bruichladdict]

It won't matter what the bar code or tax code says on the bottle. It is 6-8 years old. It will always be 6-8 years old. As you know, whiskies don't age any further in the bottle. 30 yrs won't have added much value. If I were you, I would open it, taste it neat, or with a little water. If you like it, finish it that way, add ice if you want ( Novice Scotch Fan has some for you ), and if you don't like it, do what everyone else in North America does with it: Crown & Coke, Crown & Ginger, Crown & Soda.

[The Third Dram]

If what your uncle said is accurate, that would 'place' your bottle of CR as one distributed around the 1970s. And yes, it is 'just' Crown Royal, with no additional drinking benefit for its (specifically) having been sitting sealed in its bottle all this time.

However, and this despite Diageo's claims to the contrary, I've found that such 'older' CRs do in fact possess a slightly different taste from their contemporary kin. Of course, this may simply be (partially, at least) due to the whisky having altered marginally in the bottle over the interim. But I still harbour a sneaking suspicion that those 'older' CRs, containing as they do product from many of Seagram's long sinced closed distilleries (such as the Waterloo site), have a 'certain something' the newer bottlings don't.

I conducted just such a comparative taste-test a little while back with my brother, and we both agreed that this was the case. So pop the top and enjoy!