Flavour change over time in open bottles.

@Peatpete I've had the same positive experiences that you have. I have read though that too much oxygen in the bottle can interact with the flavours and whatnot and ruin the whisky, so I don't know what to believe.

@Peatpete, none of this is your imagination. And the changes are probably even more pronounced with bourbon whiskeys and with some rye whiskeys than they are with malts. Please refer to my review Old Saz at 5 months for a long discussion of this topic with examples. Cheers!

Leaving a whisky sitting in air contact does cause flavour development, exactly the same as letting a wine breathe. As you've correctly identified, the changes are most pronounced when the level gets below about half way, and many people recommend that once the level gets there you're best off finishing the rest of the bottle within a few months.

Interesting that you found Talisker 10 insipid and tasteless - I wonder how much of the difference you experienced had to do with air contact, and how much with the other factors (e.g. what you'd drunk prior, what mood you were in, time of day, etc.)?

Here's an interesting "experiment" on the effects of oxygen on our beloved malts.

recenteats.blogspot.com/2011/03/…

@whiskyshiba Thanks for the educational resource. Nice read and thought provoking to ponder over with a dram or two.

Thanks for the feedback. @whiskyshiba It is an interesting experiment, and what I find most interesting is that he found the opposite effect to what michaelshout and I have found. @jacobstanding, with the Talisker I had thought that it may be other factors. When I opened it I had read a few reviews calling "massive" and "hugely powerful", so I went into it with the expectation of it being along the same lines as a big Islay. By the same token, when I started drinking it, the other whiskies I had been drinking were the big islays, so it was fairly delicate in comparisson. By the time I finished the bottle, I had started to drink a wider range of scotches. However, by contrast to this, the other bottle that I noticed a huge change in as I drank thru it was the Blackadder Smoking Islay. With that one, I went in with few expectations except those engendered by the name, and for the whole time I was drinking it my whisky cabinet remained fairly constant, so it wasnt a change in what I was comparing it to. This makes me wonder if with those whiskies that show a marked improvment given some time contacting air, they would benefit from decanting?

@HP12 My pleasure.