Young Whisky

[Peter Corlett]

Joel Bernstein <joel at fysh.org> wrote:
[...]
> My local Oddbins has Scapa 14 year old in stock. I suppose that could
> still mean they stopped distilling 14 years ago thought...

It could well be much older than that.

The reason whisky has an age on the bottle rather than a year is that,
unlike wine, it stops maturing once it is bottled. It will remain in the
same condition indefinitely, provided it has not been opened.

Scotch is hygroscopic, so an opened bottle will go off after a couple of
years when stoppered. Scotch left open to the air will go off much quicker.

There are some rather dusty bottles in the Birmingham Oddbins which suggests
that the natives don't really drink all that much scotch. It's not just the
expensive stuff either: my Oogie set me back 32 quid in the "buy two and get
a tenner off" deal.

-- 
PGP key ID E85DC776 - finger abuse at mooli.org.uk for full key