Good scotch to age 21 years

Hello,

I'm going to be having my first child, a son, in May. A couple years ago I was speaking to someone that purchased a case of port wine for his child when he was born and celebrated his 21st birthday with him and the port. I'd like to do this with a Scotch since I don't have a wine cellar, and am curious about recommendations for a bottle that would age well over the next 21 years. Would love any advice. Thanks!

[drammerjon]

Typically, a whisky will not benefit from bottle aging like a wine. So long as the whisky remains unopened it should keep fine for years.

[jwise]

I've got some bad news for you. Whisky, as opposed to wine, does not "bottle age." Once it comes out of the cask and into a bottle, it doesn't get any better (or worse!)

There are a very few who would disagree with me in theory, but not in practice. Buy a bottle of vintage port, instead. Keep it on its side (keeping the cork wet), and don't leave it in direct sunlight.

[p_froes]

I disagree with jwise. Whisky does age in the bottle, but very slowly and thus less notably than say wine.

Any cask strength whisky of your liking will do. I would go for one between 10-20 years old, because they still have some rough edges which will smoothen out nicely in 21 years in the bottle.
Also extreme flavors will mellow out.
Please let us know what you decide to get

[jwise]

See, I told you some would disagree with my in theory. However, if someone says they have a 40yr old bottle of Glenfarclas, there is a big difference in the value of that bottle depending on whether they mean it is a bottle of Glenfarclas aged for 40 years in cask, or whether they mean it is a bottle of Glenfarclas aged for 10 years in cask that they bought thirty years ago.

P_Froes- which bottles are you currently aging in your cabinet?

[blenderm]

I hate to disagree with jwise but whisky [at least Scotch Whisky] does degrade to a degree in bottle depending on when it was bottled. Since the early 80's all whisky bottles have a coating [Titanising] on the inside of the bottle that limits to a degree the transfer of a "soda - washing not Coke" style flavour to whisky. If there was no transfer of flavour do you think that the Scotch Whisky industry would pay a higher price for this treatment? It's a lottery on all old bottles on whether they are acceptable or not.

[jwise]

See? I told you that others would disagree with me in theory. However, for those of us who DRINK our whisky, or will drink it within a reasonable time frame (10yrs?), there is no worry about degradation or hope of improvement to any real degree.

Just get a case of vintage port for this project....

[p_froes]

Originally Posted by jwise

P_Froes- which bottles are you currently aging in your cabinet?

Hey jwise,

Quite a few that I find too spirity or too expressive on certain fronts.
A good example is the Ledaig 2005/2010 (62.7%, Berry Bros & Rudd, sherry butt, cask #900008). This one is a heavily sherried and peated 5yo dram. Too much for me at the moment. I'm hoping that in 20 years it will be magnificent. We'll have to wait and see.