Friday, February 24, 2012

Half drunk bottles

Most people I know who drink whisky aren't worried to much about saving it.  Once a bottle is cracked, it's fair game until it's empty.  That's what it's for, right?  But now and then, you get a bottle that you want to savor.  Either it was out of your usual league pricewise, or it's a rare find.  As long as the bottle is more than half full, that's fine.  But less than half and it will start to oxidize after a few months.  If you don't believe me check out an experiment conducted on this L.A. food blog: whisky, age, and oxygen.  So, what can you do to prevent blowing through the bottle in an effort to preserve it's peak taste?  Re-bottle it.  I will say as a full disclaimer I lifted this idea straight from my favorite bourbon blog, Sour Mash Manifesto.  Read Jason Pyle's post about whisky storage here.  I ordered bottles from Specialty Bottle, I chose 2oz and 4oz boston rounds.  When they came in, I washed and dried them (learn from my mistakes, don't do this in the dishwasher, the gunk gets in the tiny bottles and it's a pain in the ass to clean them out).  Then I chose a few whiskies that I had that I wanted to preserve.  I bottled up the rest of my Van Winkle 12, and of course the George T. Stagg.  And a few others that some of the readers out there may discover later...Now it can sit on the shelf as long as I like. 

The end result looks pretty cool:



A hobby gone too far? Maybe it's a little crazy, but that's part of the fun. The key is using some form of label to not forget what you've done.




2 comments:

  1. perfect for on the go drinking. Actually this would be a great for another idea I had. A whisky advent calendar. I can't find enough decent miniatures to make one, but with these you could use anything.

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  2. these bottles remind me of those movies where some guy is selling some magical tonic off the back of his carriage. i bought one of those wine saver things that pumps the air out. i'm not sure how good of a job it does because i usually finish my bottles rather quickly

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