"Bottle ageing"

by **Iain** » Wed Jan 29, 2003 7:42 pm

I have just read Peter Wood's article on this. Compelling and vastly entertaining stuff (much better than the dour and plodding original article). More irreverent articles such as this, please!

Is there anyone out there who is willing to offer some support for anything that Martin Isark wrote?

And if Mr Isark is a whisky expert, how dumb must the rest of us be?

by **Gate** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 6:43 pm

I'd support the proposition that even whisky in a sealed bottle will undergo some sort of chemical change over a very long period: port in a similarly cork-stoppered bottle certainly does (and yes, I appreciate that the lower strength and extra congeners, particulates, etc. in port must make a huge difference, but it's still a sealed bottle, not breathing through a cork with which the liquid is in contact). It just seems common sense that, say, a Macallan put in bottle in 1927 and opened today isn't going to taste exactly the same as it would have done if it has been opened in 1928. But how noticeable the change would be is anyone's guess. Good for an argument, though: my only experience of a "bottle-aged" whisky was some ancient Claymore, which was way better than Claymore should have been - but maybe Claymore used to be a better blend than it is these days...