# Is old bottled whisky still good? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** liquor-alcohol\ **Created:** [December 20, 2024, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900 "2024-12-20T02:41:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/41 "2024-12-20T18:10:25Z")
Yeah, I might take a pass on the Cream whiskey, too. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/42 "2024-12-20T18:16:26Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > ETA: I suspect I ought to toss the Bailey’s Irish Cream, though. Yeah, that’s one exception to the rule that liqueurs and liquors don’t really go bad in the bottle. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/43 "2024-12-20T18:23:29Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > I know I’ve made some people question my sanity when I told them _ **I hated Pappy Van Winkle** _ and gave several bottles away (from back when it was still Stitzel-Weller and not Buffalo Trace) that I probably should have sold. We have at last found a point of agreement; I think it is the ‘Disneyworld of Bourbons’ in that it is overpriced, overworked, and ultimately leaves you feeling disappointed that it just didn’t live up to the hype. I wouldn’t necessarily give bottles away unless someone got really excited about it but I would not be adverse to using it in an Old Fashioned (if I made those, which I don’t). I have not tried it since they switched distilleries but I don’t imagine that I’d find it to match the hype. In general, I’m not impressed with the recent trend of super-high-end bourbons, although I have found a few overpriced but boutique bourbons that do some interesting things. But then, I come from the background of starting with Irish whiskeys and then Scotch and Japanese peated whiskys, and I think my tastes in what makes a good liquor are substantially different than most bourbon enthusiasts. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/44 "2024-12-20T18:47:51Z")
Yep. I had a bottle of South African Amarillo, a type of cream liqueur, that I had forgotten about and discovered like five to seven years later. It was very obviously bad — a disgusting half solidified sludge of what it was supposed to be. I’m pretty sure I nonetheless tasted it and, um, it wasn’t good. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/45 "2024-12-20T18:50:12Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I wouldn’t necessarily give bottles away unless someone got really excited about it Well, I did give it to people that were very excited about it, and at least one bottle I traded (somewhat lopsided-ly) for something _I_ wanted. But yeah, I don’t like wheated bourbon, and the hype train couldn’t take me past that basic misalignment. Hated is maybe a strong word, but I hated the idea that what to me was an inoffensive, unexciting pour was somehow this gold standard for what sophisticated drinkers should aspire to own. This whole high-end bourbon explosion and the resulting battle for ‘limited’ production bottles has turned me off the whole category. I mostly buy armagnac now. Which also now I mostly don’t drink, but it’s there for me when I do. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/46 "2024-12-20T20:16:42Z")
Just be careful with amaretto. There was a murder mystery (I read it a long time and can recall nothing else about it) that involved someone opening a very old bottle and drinking the first pour without any shaking. It turned out the almond oil had concentrated over the years in the top fraction and contained enough cyanide to kill the drinker. I have no idea how realistic the whole scenario was but almonds can contain cyanide, although they will be bitter. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/47 "2024-12-20T20:34:22Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > It turned out the almond oil had concentrated over the years in the top fraction and contained enough cyanide to kill the drinker. I have no idea how realistic the whole scenario was but almonds can contain cyanide, although they will be bitter. I’m calling a bullshit on that one. (Same for being poisoned by fruit salad because the apple seeds weren’t removed.). You probably get more cyanide exposure from a normal application of table salt than you would from amaretto, most modern brands of which don’t even use almond oil because the traditional infusion process is so time-consuming. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/48 "2024-12-20T22:24:13Z")
You are doubtless correct. My wife thinks it might have been a Peter Wimsey story, so quite old. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/49 "2024-12-20T23:55:21Z")
That’s my speculation as well. I’ll check my Wimsey collection (Or it could be a Montague Egg story, Sayers’s alternative detective, who was a liquor salesman.) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/50 "2024-12-21T00:02:31Z")
I think it’s « Bitter Almonds », a Montague Egg story, but I don’t have this this collection: _In the Teeth of the Evidence._ > **[Montague Egg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montague_Egg)** > > Montague Egg is a fictional amateur detective, who appears in eleven short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers. > Unlike Sayers's better-known creation, Lord Peter Wimsey, Egg does not actively pursue investigations. Usually, he is witness to the discovery of a murdered body, or links a casual observation with a recent newspaper headline proclaiming some crime. He is, in his own words, "Monty-on-the-spot". The plots are typically neat puzzles with less personal content than the Wimsey stories, although ... > **[In the Teeth of the Evidence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Teeth_of_the_Evidence)** > > In the Teeth of the Evidence is a collection of short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers first published by Victor Gollancz in 1939. > The book's title is taken from the first story in the collection. > > This article about a collection of mystery short stories published in the 1930s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/51 "2024-12-21T18:01:32Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > sealed hard liquor is good indefinitely I can attest to this. When my paternal grandfather passed away in the early 1970s, I inherited s few bottles of whiskey & rum. A few had tax stamps dated many years earlier. (Tax stamps are no longer dated.) They had been opened but only a little had been consumed. The corks were solid. They all tasted amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/52 "2024-12-21T20:35:13Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But sip conservatively you mean with disdain for the poor? ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/53 "2024-12-22T00:08:45Z")
A bit of backstory to my post: During his adult life, my late FIL was a bar owner, owned a beer distributorship, and was a union bartender. It was this last position that allowed him to accumulate all this liquor, as he was allowed (more or less) to take the leftovers after his jobs were over. I’m not sure why he would take them, as he was a nondrinker. I should add I found leftover bottles from my wedding 34 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2025, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/54 "2025-09-18T02:23:37Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > > > It turned out the almond oil had concentrated over the years in the top fraction and contained enough cyanide to kill the drinker. I have no idea how realistic the whole scenario was but almonds can contain cyanide, although they will be bitter. > > I’m calling a bullshit on that one. (Same for being poisoned by fruit salad because the apple seeds weren’t removed.). You probably get more cyanide exposure from a normal application of table salt than you would from amaretto, most modern brands of which don’t even use almond oil because the traditional infusion process is so time-consuming. > > Stranger Right, I found the story. It is “Bitter Almonds” by Sayers, published in the collection _In the Teeth of the Evidence_. The means of death was prussic acid poisoning, from an unopened bottle of Crème de Noyaux, which traditionally was made from peach pits, which contain naturally occurring hydrogen cyanide. > **[Crème de Noyaux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr%C3%A8me_de_Noyaux)** > > Crème de Noyaux (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}pronounced \[kʁɛm də nwajo\]) is an almond-flavored crème liqueur, although it is actually made from apricot kernels or the kernels of peach or cherry pits, which provide an almond-like flavor. Both Bols and Hiram Walker produce artificially colored red versions of the liqueur (eit His... The wikipedia article on Crème de Noyaux cites a book on toxicology published in 2015, which asserts that the trace amounts of hydrogen cyanide in Crème de Noyaux could kill the first drinker from a bottle. The 2015 book cites a 19th century text in support of that proposition, _Taylor’s Principle and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence_: > Historically, crème de noyaux would contain trace amounts of [hydrogen cyanide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_cyanide), which is poisonous. Although the chemical was not normally present in a dangerous intensity, bottles of 19th-century Noyaux left for decades in the cellar would sometimes have all the cyanide float up to the top, with lethal results for the drinker of the first glass.[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr%C3%A8me_de_Noyaux#cite_note-HallIsom2015-3) > **[Toxicology of Cyanides and Cyanogens](https://books.google.ca/books?id=D1q-CgAAQBAJ&pg=PR19&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false)** > > The basic and applied toxicology of cyanides and cyanogens has widespread commercial, occupational, environmental, clinical, forensic, military, and public health implications. This book provides a detailed and updated reference describing the... ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/55 "2025-09-18T22:13:52Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > (Same for being poisoned by fruit salad because the apple seeds weren’t removed.) I eat apple seeds all the time and I am still around to tell about it. I eat everything in an apple except the stem. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/56 "2025-09-18T22:37:38Z")
You have to eat considerably more than one apple’s worth at a time to have ill effects. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2025, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/57 "2025-09-19T09:45:32Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I eat apple seeds all the time and I am still around to tell about it. I eat everything in an apple except the stem. Me too. And I have never experienced an apple tree growing inside me despite childhood warnings. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2025, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/58 "2025-09-19T12:28:45Z")
Just you wait. Like the chest-burster in _Alien_, it’ll come out when it’s good and ready. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/59 "2025-09-29T11:21:02Z")
wasnt it sugarmelon seeds that would lead to an apple tree growing in you? … I feel betrayed … ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900/60 "2025-09-29T11:45:40Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Unopened bottles are probably still just fine, unless (possibly) they are _very_ old. This is good news because I received a gift of very fine whiskey several years ago, and the unopened bottle is still on the shelf where I keep my upscale alcoholic beverages. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-old-bottled-whisky-still-good/1011900.md?page=4)