Question for Booze Collectors

[rburg]

So in the spirit of things, my wife sent a text to one of our DILs. Told her that her friend could have the worldly remains of the bottle of Hirsch I'd been working down for the last 14 or so years. He couldn't believe his good fortune and drove down today to pick it up. Least I change my mind. He was pretty humble and thankful for it. Wasn't , much left in the bottle, maybe 2 shots or a little more. I even gave him a padded carrier, and left the hang tag on the bottle.

Let no one say I'm that stingy. He can have fun with whats left. Now my only problem will be what to open next. Another of my Hirsch or the bottle of Pappy that was bottled in 1997. That was 20 year. I even know where I think I might have stashed it. If not I'll need to tear the house apart looking. Then I guess I need to declare a party to sample it.

 

[TheHobbyist]

Just a quick note that when booze is put into a bottle, glass bottle, it stops aging. If you have a 10 year age, but bought it 20 years ago, that does not equate to 30 years age from a flavor perspective. Just a point to clarify a common misunderstanding. Best, TH

 

[JohnRippert]

I have some old stuff that Dad kept in a cabinet in the garage since the '70s. Nothing special, although they are all pretty damn smooth. El Presidente brandy, Anejo Bacardi rum, Oso Negro vodka. The El Presidente makes some darn good Mexican/Irish coffee.

 

[Chubbo]

Folly

Here is is a picture of a, still sealed Jug, that once held bourbon, commemorating a brand of booze. I had it stashed away in my cabinet, for many years, and when I moved it, I said, My! that feels light. Upon examining it closer, I found it empty! The booze had evaporated through a hairline crack in the jug! I could have wept, but it taught me a valuable lesson, "Don't Again Hoard Good Booze"! It needs to be used in the manner, It was designed for! "Nuff Said"
http://smith-wessonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=322169&stc=1&d=1516752661
Chubbohttp://smith-wessonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=322170&stc=1&d=1516752661

 

[Absalom]

....The booze had evaporated through a hairline crack in the jug!.....

When that happens when the stuff is still aging in the barrel (and it always does because wood is organic and never airtight), it’s called the “angels’ share”. I think the angels had a party at your place

 

[rburg]

I wonder if chubbo had any teenage sons during that claimed evaporation incident. I once noticed my prized bottle of seagrams seemed lighter in color than I remembered it. Then I took the cap off and realized it had lost a lot of its alcohol content. Didn't see any hairline cracks in the glass. Guess maybe my sons had something to do with it. Who knows. I wrote the bottle off to my education. No reason to drink it when it got that weak.

Just to clarify the post above about bottled booze not getting any better, its true. But it also doesn't get any worse either. The stuff being bottled today doesn't seem to be as good as that bottled yesteryear. An example would be my still sealed bottle of Pappy. My gun show partner Joe got it in 1997 for his birthday. One of our gun show swindlers discovered the distillery doesn't even have a bottle of that vintage. And there will never be anymore of it. It was one of the line that made the name for the brand.

Another of the superstitions a friend holds is that the remaining booze won't keep once its been opened. That friend also had teen sons, so maybe there's a connection. That bottle of Hirsch I gave away smelled as good as it did over a decade ago. Of course that can't be attributed to the air in the bottle, but more to my habit of keeping it locked away, and my son's getting married and moving out. Go figure.

Guess if I can't sell my bottles I'll just have to drink them. I've got enough top shelf stuff to last till I'm 124. Guess I can stop buying more now.

 

[jlrhiner]

My mother collected Whisky decanters during the 60's and early 70's. We have @ 200. We have all the state commemoratives, I believe by Beam, all 4 of the McCormick Train, and many, many others. My favorite is the Spey Royal bottle with the music box and dancing Scotsman. All of them with seals un-broken.

 

[500SNW]

My mother collected Whisky decanters during the 60's and early 70's. We have @ 200. We have all the state commemoratives, I believe by Beam, all 4 of the McCormick Train, and many, many others. My favorite is the Spey Royal bottle with the music box and dancing Scotsman. All of them with seals un-broken.

The scary thing is, I just realized that your bottle collection is housed just a stones throw away from the epicentre of the New Madrid Fault

 

[Chubbo]

I have give this thread considerable thought, in the last few days, and have these comments.

On the concerns of breaking the law. In our society, there is a law on the books, to cover any act that one might want to do, and makes it illegal. There is also one to absolve you if you do it. You only have to choose if you want to do it, and if it's worth the money needed for absolution.

rburg:
Your teenage sons, observations makes good sense, but should include teenage daughters, maybe even more importantly. I can't blame teenage sons for my loss. One of my sons was deceased by that time, and the other, out, gone, married, with his own family and on his own by that time

Absalom:
I would like to wipe the lopsided grins off those "Angles Share", Angles faces, that shared my bourbon! By all rights, I should be wearing that lopsided grin.

Yesterday, my Nephew related a sad incident to me, involving a quart bottle of ancient booze found by his old uncle in his great uncle's attic, buried under old news papers, no doubt to save the great Aunt, great amounts of needless worry, had she known about the booze, and it was forgotten, but later found, a generation later, by my nephew's uncle, then passed on to my nephew. Well, when my nephew was having that uncle's estate sale, that ancient, unsealed, bottle of booze was sitting near the kitchen sink, and a helpful, religious, idiot, removed the sealed stopper of that bottle, and helpfully poured the contents down through the smiling, happily waiting mouth of the kitchen sink. Had that been me, I would have completely worn out that empty bottle, on that idiot's head! My nephew having a more forgiving nature, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Oh Well", threw the empty bottle in the trash, and forgot about it.
That story left me speechless.
Chubbo

 

[rburg]

Two things I can't stand. "Someone who is sober when I'm drunk, and someone who is drunk when I'm sober".