So, I enjoy an adult beverage on occasion. And since I am stuck at home due to the current situation, I generally enjoy a tipple in the evening while watching the tube. I am the only one in the house who drinks hard stuff (my spouse is all about red wine). Because I don’t move through my supply very quickly my bar is relatively small: one of each of the standards, and a few mixers.
However, I also have acquired over time some stuff that I really don’t have a need for and plan on drinking. The bottle look fine lined up with everything else and add to the decor, sorta like books on a shelf. But I do get to wondering if some of this old stuff is still any good. I know certain wines and liquors get better with age, but is that 20 year old half-bottle of Chambord still drinkable? I suppose I could look it up, but why bother?
Here’s my list:
[ul]
[li]Decorative champagne bottle from our wedding years ago. We just don’t drink champagne.[/li][li]Another champagne given as a house warming gift.[/li][li]2 bottles of Port[/li][li]Cointreau[/li][li]Vinsanto[/li][li]Chambord[/li][li]Disaronno[/li][/ul]
So, am I unique in this rumination? Or do others keep old booze around for decoration? What are your orphan bottles?
Champagne can get vinegar-y, tho with some dry varieties, I don’t know how you can tell. (Not a champagne fan myself.) As for the other stuff, I guess it depends on how well it’s been sealed.
We don’t decorate with booze, but we also hardly ever drink. Our liquor cabinet is the one over the stove, above the built-in microwave - I suppose it’s all been nuked by association. :eek: Most of what’s up there belongs to my daughter, so it’s not all that old, since they’ve just been here 2 years. I recently finished off some Kahlua that was maybe 7 or 8 years old - it was fine. No clue about the assorted rums and vodkas up there. I expect the Fireball is OK.
Spirits don’t age in the bottle, just the barrel. If a bottle has been opened the booze can get skunky, but I don’t think it is harmful (or more harmful than booze in general). Something like vermouth needs to be refrigerated once it’s open or it goes bad.
We’ve got a bottle with a long history. During Mr VOW’s first tour of Germany, the Jim Beam company came out with a decorative decanter that was available ONLY overseas: a pair of jump boots with a helmet resting on top.
Anyone with even a smidgen of military background would recognize this as a “short-timer.”
We were still practically newlyweds when he got his orders for his next duty station, Ft Lewis, WA. We scraped together all our pennies and our pfennig, and he bought the boots from the Class VI store.
I hate Jim Beam, and Mr VOW doesn’t drink.
We’ve hauled those boots everywhere, and they are currently parked at our house in AZ. There is still the seal over the cap.
The bottle is 45 years old. And we have been told the booze inside is terrible by now, or evaporated (there’s still a slosh). Then the same people who swear it’s undrinkable offer to get rid of it for us.
~VOW
I was poking around in the basement the other night and found a bottle of Old Granddad 114. It was a nice looking bottle, although dusty and faded. The cork was just beginning to get crumbly. My gf figures it to be around 22 years old.
Safe to drink? I’m not sure. I opened it and drank about half the bottle, and it really messed me up. I’m going to try some more, maybe drink a bit less next time.
When Kopek and I were cleaning out my mother’s house in preparation for selling it in 2010, we discovered that there were still several bottles of my uncle’s favorite beer in the basement fridge. Said uncle died in 1976. :eek:
Not quite as bad, but when we bought this place in 2004, the previous owners left a lot of stuff behind, including a fridge in the garage that had a bunch of Coors Light - with a use by date of 1997. We don’t like beer anyway, but I’m guessing it was pretty skunky.
I’d say that the amaretto might be good; but the Chambord and Cointreau are likely messed up by now - liqueurs do funky stuff over time- it’s the fruit and sugar, and ones not based on fruit(nuts, coffee, herbs) seem to keep longer. But straight up distilled spirits (rum, gin, whiskey, vodka, etc…) don’t go bad in a sealed container for the most part.
Be careful. A lot of those old Beam decanters used a glaze with lead in it. I’ve seen threads on the booze discussion forums where someone’s sent a sample of the liquid out for a lead test, and the results have ranged from fine to drink (except they never seemed to put their best stuff in the collector bottles) all the way to holy shit hazardous waste.
