# Ten-Year-Old+ Bottle of Bourbon. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072 "2007-12-15T03:52:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mikemo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/41988e/32.png) [@mikemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikemo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072/21 "2007-12-21T14:42:37Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] I thought this thread was going to be along the lines of “what happens when you mix a ten-year-old and a bottle of bourbon.” Since the title was in the form of “ten-year-old” and then a PLUS sign and then “Bottle of Bourbon.” Heh. [/QUOTE] I’m glad I’m not the only one that thought that! ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072/22 "2007-12-21T14:55:34Z")
I still have a bottle containing a couple of inches of Johnnie Walker which was 12 years old in the 1940s, when my grandfather was in charge of the officers’ bar at RAF Cranfield. Still tasted OK to me, but I have only had the tiniest of sips as I wanted to keep it. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072/23 "2007-12-21T16:29:52Z")
[QUOTE=Diomedes] My family has a tradition of laying aside a case of whiskey when a boy is born, and guzzling it down 18 years later. [/QUOTE] I knew a family that did that. Only one of their ‘friends’ stole all but one bottle. They knew who it was and tried to prosecute, but the District Attorney said ‘Eleven bottles doesn’t make a case!’ ---
**Author:** ![Crawlspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072/24 "2007-12-21T21:40:25Z")
How anyone’s able to keep a bottle of bourbon in the house for more than a week is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072/25 "2007-12-22T03:06:57Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] You’re just lucky it wasn’t one of those Jim Beam collectible bottles from the 1960’s-70’s. I once was _given_ ten of those, still sealed, by the wife of a man who died. She didn’t drink, and knew I liked bourbon. [/QUOTE] My dad’s got a fancy, unopened bottle of Beam in some sort of fancy gift box that somebody gave him. He says the stuff was aged 15 years before it was bottled in 1964. So it was put in the cask when my dad was 5, and bottled two years before I was born. I’d like to take a sip or two of that. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072/26 "2007-12-22T03:53:36Z")
Remember, spirits can only go downhill in the bottle. They aren’t wine…they don’t “age.” When they are bottled, they are as good as they are going to ever be. So that 15 yo Beam isn’t suddenly magnificent because it’s so old. But it still sounds like a right nice tipple. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072/27 "2007-12-22T05:44:31Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Remember, spirits can only go downhill in the bottle. They aren’t wine…they don’t “age.” When they are bottled, they are as good as they are going to ever be. So that 15 yo Beam isn’t suddenly magnificent because it’s so old. But it still sounds like a right nice tipple. [/QUOTE] No, I knew that it’s still just 15-year-old whiskey. But hey, I’d like to drink some 15YO whiskey! I was more astonished that the darned bottle had gone unopened for so long! What a waste! ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072/28 "2007-12-22T14:14:08Z")
I discovered a couple weeks ago a bottle of Jack Daniels that had been pushed to the back of a cupboard and forgotten for about a year. There was about a half-inch left in the bottle. When I pulled it back out, the color was right, but it was cloudy. It smelled okay, but I poured it out anyway, ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072/29 "2007-12-22T19:41:29Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] I knew a family that did that. Only one of their ‘friends’ stole all but one bottle. They knew who it was and tried to prosecute, but the District Attorney said ‘Eleven bottles doesn’t make a case!’ [/QUOTE] They reserve a special place in hell for people like you… ---
**Author:** ![Barrington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Barrington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrington)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072/30 "2007-12-23T21:14:31Z")
I have a couple of bottles of cheapish whisky, which my parents bought in the mid-1970s and never drank. They gave them to me a few months ago when they were clearing out a cupboard. I’ve opened one of them, and it tastes like cheapish whisky. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-year-old-bottle-of-bourbon/430072.md?page=1)