Malt Advocate publisher & editor John Hansell has an interesting post up today at What Does John Know, regarding the storage of whisk(e)y. To wit: how do you keep your opened bottles at their best?
This is a question that’s increasingly starting to bother me. Several years ago, when I first started assembling the contents of my liquor cabinet (though that list is badly outdated now — the “August 6” date refers to 2007), I was working with information that I’d read god-only-knows-where that for all intents and purposes, distilled spirits will last pretty much forever, as long as you keep the bottles well sealed and in a cool, dark place.
Now, I’ve accumulated a lot of stuff; while my cabinet is built for depth and function, and there are only a few bottles that I’d consider high-end collector’s sorts of spirits, I’m increasingly concerned about the life span of what’s in the bottles. Once a bottle has been opened (and depending on the seal, sometimes even before), a gradual process of oxidation starts, robbing a spirit of its nuances and vital characteristics. In time — how long? who knows (let me know if you do) — the booze in the bottle is a shadow of its former self, a faded (and perhaps expensive) souvenir that harks back to a time when I thought I needed four different styles of apricot brandy.
While I’m pretty strict about refrigerating my vermouths (and other wine-ey relatives) and using them fairly quickly, the storage of my spirits is starting to give me a bit of heartburn. So, from my pit of clueless worry, I’ll cast the question out to you: how do you care for your open bottles? Do you use a Vacu Vin
