Acquiring rare Bourbons - Any tips?

[TheRiddick]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

Bourbon and Scotch are always coming up at auction. Keep mind a bottle of distilled liquor that sits in the bottle for a long time will taste different than a fresh bottled one.

Just curious, what chemical process do you think does that?

[nutcracker]

Originally Posted by TheRiddick

Just curious, what chemical process do you think does that?

The process is certainly different from wine (which changes relatively quickly)

Two that come to mind:

1.) Oxidation - a certain degree of ullage occurs over time (evaporation etc) - thus when your whiskey level drops much, it is time to finish it off. The change is virtually imperceptible to most people - unless you try new vs opened bottles of scotch one day. The new scotch is just "brighter"

2.) Precipitation. Much like tannins precipitate out in wine, vanillins, ketones, esters and other cogeners (heavy byproducts of distillation) will precipitate to some degree. Although it won't spoil or "die", the whiskey character will change a bit.

Although you can keep whiskey for a long time (and a modest time once open), you shouldn't leave it for your grandchildren. It is not improving. The best date to drink is soon after bottling.

It is also a fallacy that really long barrel ageing will improve whiskey more. There is a point where the vanilla and barrel flavours overwhelm any fruit, and the whiskey is just old and tired. The frighteningly expensive 40 year old scotches are not worth the thousands (IMHO).

Sweet spot for peated Islay is about an 18-25 year old

Come to think of it....