Drinking old whisky

[PT_Aaron]

Hey all,

I posted on the forum a while back (http://whisky.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47314) that I have a bottle of White Horse dating from 1954-56. It is in very good condition as far as the contents go (i.e. no evaporation); the bottle itself is in fair shape. Though it was valued somewhere between £40-300 at auction, I have decided against auctioning it off. My Q is this: does anyone have direct experience with drinking old whisky, and if so, what should I be looking for to determine if it's still potable, and what should I do after it's been opened? By this I mean, will it be obvious by the smell that it's good or bad, and will it go bad if I don't drink it in a day or 2? It's a 40 oz. bottle, so I'll have to take a day off from work if that's the case! Ha-ha.

Thanks and regards,

PT_Aaron

[blenderm]

The main problem with old bottles is that there may be a glass taint [think of washing soda if you're as old as me] that may give it a flat slightly odd tang to it. Apart from that as long as the bottle's full, or nearly full and not cloudy, old whisky is always drinkable and don't worry about it taking a few days/weeks to drink once opened it lasts as long as modern.

The only way to tell is to open it and taste.

The one big rider is do not drink whisky that's been sold in old [pre 1990] crystal decanters as the odds are that it been contaminated with lead, the same goes for pre 1950 whisky in stoneware/pottery bottles as there's a certainty that lead glaze was used on it.

Slainthe