Open Bottle Storage: Oxidation, Letting Whisky Breath

There is an idea prevalent in the whisky world that letting a whisky “breath” or “open up” changes the flavor of a whisky similar to wine. We thought we would test this as it would also be interesting indicator of how fast oxidation reactions occur. We took a standard double old fashioned glass and poured out 6 oz from the control bottle right at the beginning of the blind tasting. We exposed the whisky in the glass to open air to let it “open up” for 90 minutes in a dark temperature controlled environment. Then we poured the whisky from the double old fashioned glass into tasting glasses and had the tasters taste the whisky blind against the control.

90 Minutes Later

NOTE: When we speak about the differences in taste or score, it is the difference between a specimen and the control, and another specimen and the control. Not the direct difference between the two specimens.

According to our study the idea that letting a whisky “breath” or “open up” does not actual happen. It was close to indistinguishable at a scant 0.67 points. There is a chance that the control pour was sitting too long by tasters thus also “opening up” the control as well, but we are doubtful of this because the results are so closely aligned and the time elapse was so large. We think what happens when you let a whisky “breath” is the whisky remains virtually unchanged, but the taster’s senses are what have changed. This also brings up questions as to how strong of a force oxidation has on whisky. While oxidation may play a part in changing the taste of a stored whisky over time, we are skeptical that oxidation is the actual reaction that accounts for the major changes in taste of a stored whisky. We plan to do another study on this to further explore this concept.

Open Bottle Storage Experiment Chapters:

• Introduction – What is this about and what does it matter?
• Experiment Setup – How did we setup the experiment? What were the testing parameters? Etc.
• Whisky Left Out on A Shelf – What happens to whiskey just left on a shelf? Does it matter? Do you have any proof to back that up?
• Storing Whisky with Private Preserve – Does using Private Preserve help?
• Storing Whisky by Vacuum Sealing – Does vacuum sealing an open bottle help?
• Storing Whisky by Decanting – Does putting whisky into smaller bottles help?
• Storing Whisky with Liquid Displacement – Does displacing the liquid removed with something else help?
• Storing Whisky Headspace – Does the amount of headspace in an open bottle matter?
• Storing Whisky Oxidation Effects, and Letting Whisky Breath – What are the oxidation effects? Does whisky breath?
• Storing Whisky Conclusions – What are the best ways to store an open bottle of whisky.