Bourbon/Scotch Rack (similar to wine racks) Featured

Hi, Please don't lay your whisky down like that you will kill it.Stand it up right in the bottle,if possilble in the tube it came in. My wife put a 1977 Ardbeg down flat on a rack and wiped out a £100 bootle of Scotch. Drew

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

Now this does make me curious.

If I lay the bottle down, I would think that the liquid (WHISKY!) inside will keep the cork wet and therefore expanded, sealing the bottle against the evil air.

Whereas if I stand the bottle up, the cork will dry out letting evil air into the bottle.

And why is this not so???

nick

nospam wrote:

There's a long discussion here

starting about six page-scrolls down. Or search for the word "cork."

The consensus among these folks, at least some of whom appear to keep hundreds of bottles in their homes, is that prolonged exposure to the high alcohol levels in scotch will leach a cork taste into the scotch, and if the cork is not one piece, dissolve the glue. They recommend tilting the bottles once every few months or so to keep some moisture in the cork, but generally to store them upright.

It is so, AFAIK. Corks need to stay moist or the will dry out and allow more gas/fluid transfer.The counterpoint is that not all whisky has corks. For example, G&M Connoisseur's Choice bottlings have had screw tops since at least

-- Larry

On Sat, 17 Nov 2007, pltrgyst wondrously revealed:

}On Sun, 18 Nov 2007 03:33:20 GMT, nick wrote: } }>If I lay the bottle down, I would think that the liquid }>(WHISKY!) inside will keep the cork wet and therefore }>expanded, sealing the bottle against the evil air. }>

}>Whereas if I stand the bottle up, the cork will dry out }>letting evil air into the bottle. }>

}>And why is this not so??? } }It is so, AFAIK. Corks need to stay moist or the will dry out and allow more }gas/fluid transfer.The counterpoint is that not all whisky has corks. For }example, G&M Connoisseur's Choice bottlings have had screw tops since at least }1983. The early screw tops didn't seem completely reliable to me; I used to add }Saran Wrap inside the tops to insure a tight seal. Even so, I would have been }leery of laying them down. } }-- Larry }

Hmm... this almost has the flavor of an urban legend to me.

I could see making a case for not keeping the whisky in constant contact with a multi-piece cork -- disolving glue and all that -- but...

Many wine racks I've seen do not keep the bottles fully horizontal, but inclined at a slight angle so that the cork is /not/ in constant contact with the bottle's content. Why not one of these for scotch?

And... it strikes me that if a bottler is bottling scotch with a glued cork, they would make some effort to use a glue that is not soluble in scotch. No?

That said, I keep my malts upright so I can see the labels without having to pull each bottle off the shelf to find what I'm looking for.

Dr H

I've never seen one like that. Every wine rack I've ever seen either keeps the bottles absolutely horizontal, or keeps the nose (neck) of the bottle lower than the body. In either case, the inner end of the cork is always covered by the wine.

My 600+ bottles, dating back to 1964, are all stored horizontally.

My 120+ whiskies are always vertical as well, since I don't think I'm going to live long enough to drink 'em all anyway... 8;)

-- Larry

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007, pltrgyst wondrously revealed:

}On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:21:08 -0800, Dr H wrote: } }> Many wine racks I've seen do not keep the bottles fully horizontal, but }> inclined at a slight angle so that the cork is /not/ in constant contact }> with the bottle's content. } }I've never seen one like that. Every wine rack I've ever seen either keeps the }bottles absolutely horizontal, or keeps the nose (neck) of the bottle lower than }the body. In either case, the inner end of the cork is always covered by the }wine. } }My 600+ bottles, dating back to 1964, are all stored horizontally. } }> That said, I keep my malts upright so I can see the labels without }> having to pull each bottle off the shelf to find what I'm looking for. } }My 120+ whiskies are always vertical as well, since I don't think I'm going to }live long enough to drink 'em all anyway... 8;) } }-- Larry }

Maybe I've been seeing a lot of nouveau wine racks.

I guess the other question is, other than space considerations why would anyone /want/ to keep their whisky horizontal, where they couldn't see the labels? It's not like sediment is much of an issue with malts.

Dr H