Inert gas geekery

@cricklewood, no, no new insights.

But the old insights about inert gas still work fine.

I've used Private Preserve gas, and found it to be very helpful. If I had to estimate how helpful, I would estimate that I think that it diminishes the rate of air exposure effects by maybe 80% or 90%. In other words, I would estimate that you might still get the equivalent of a month or two's worth of air exposure per year of storage using the gas. This is a great, highly useful, and easy tool, but it is not as reliable or effective as is decanting into smaller bottles with very small air spaces.

I use the gas routinely for most of my bottles. For damage-sensitive whiskies I always decant early. Only experience, your own or others', will tell you which whiskies really need to be decanted for effective preservation. In general, the most sensitive whiskies are those with low abv, no peat and smoke, no brine, and delicately balanced flavours. High ABV whiskies (to me that means above 55% ABV), heavily peaty-smokey whiskies, and very briney whiskies hold up better than the others. Sure, you lose peat and smoke quickly from the peaty-smokey ones, but oxidation and re-fermentation are not the big issues that they are with delicate whiskies.

In sum, if you use Private Preserve Wine Preservation Gas (I can only speak from experience about that one) you should get a lot of help help holding your open-bottle whiskies from changing very quickly. But there are limits, and you can't expect miracles. When in doubt, decant. Yes, I know, if you decant you hate to not have that beautiful original bottle to pour it from...It looks so good, for your guests,...and for you. Sometimes decanting makes you feel that you have been cut off from your whisky child, and it is so sad to break up a family.

@Victor Thank you for your great refresher on the subject.

I hadn't really thought about it in terms of how delicate of a whisky on which you use it but it makes sense, especially re-fermentation. As our whisky club is slowly working through the half-way point of some bottles I'm thinking of the importance of the decant, even on some of the newer ones (AnCnoc 12 comes to mind, nice whisky but super delicate palate)

Do you put any adhesive tape or seal around the cap of the bottle after using the gas, would it help?

It's also funny how decanting is a much better solution, for sure it's not as elegant a solution especially for guests but I think the sample library has it's charms too. In large part due to Connosr I have taken the habit of decanting a sample or two after opening a new bottle as a way to keep a reference.

@cricklewood , sealing the decanting bottles certainly adds to the quality of the seal and the results that will be obtained, especially if the decanted bottle is not to be opened for a substantial length of time. Do I seal the bottles myself? No, but that is just laziness and convenience on my part. A lot of my friends do seal their bottles with parafilm or tape, and I am sure that they are happy that they do so.

With respect to delicate whiskies, it doesn't take much shifting in the flavours to throw something like, say, Cardhu 12 yo, out of its original balance. This is true for bourbon also. I wouldn't let a newly opened bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 20 YO go for more than three months without decanting it.

Those of us with large whisky collections who decant also tend to accrue large collections of decanting bottles, in a variety of sizes. When you break open, for example, an 8 oz/239 ml decanted bottle, you will then need to put the unconsumed portion into (a) smaller bottle(s). The smaller decanting bottles, e.g. 2 oz/59 ml are also excellent for giving and receiving samples with your friends.

I don't think I've ever seen a good answer to the question, why would whisky degrade in an opened bottle if it's just fine for years and years in a breathing cask with lots of headspace?

Also, why would a delicate whisky be more susceptible to "re-fermentation"?

I have a can of Private Preserve, I can vouch that it works for wine, but then again I'm usually only talking a few days here. I've used it on some of my whiskies that are open for months on end, but haven't really enough experience to know how effective it is.

Decanting: as I figure it, the point is to minimize air contact--right? So, a bottle that is a tall, narrow cylinder might be best. I recently realized there is such a bottle: ice wine is typically sold in 375ml bottles that are as tall as a regular wine bottle but only half as wide, and many of them have screw-on caps (which while inelegant are good for multiple opening and resealing). Although Iive in an area known for ice wine, we don't drink it very much--I've only saved one such bottle (however, we do have several full bottles on hand...I will save the empties from now on).

@OlJas, whisky is not just fine for an indefinite period in an unopened cask. It reaches a point of diminishing returns in any given cask and you had better get it out of there or the oak flavours will ruin the whisky. Sure, the occasional cask lasts in a satisfactory way for 50 years, but that is far from typical. Whisky is systematically dumped when it is reaching the productive limits of its oak barrels. Many of the casks used for Highland Park 12 yo become Highland Park 12 yo because the distiller/blender knows that those particular casks would never last to become Highland Park 30 yo or even Highland Park 18 yo.

A delicately flavoured whisky is not more susceptible to re-fermentation--i.e. stray mold from the air colonising in the whisky and fermenting the sugars in the whisky which were mostly contributed by the barrel-- but its flavour structure IS more susceptible to being thrown out of balance, because with a delicately flavoured whisky it takes less change to upset the apple-cart.

@Oljas, if your question is specifically about why the air in a long aging barrel should have different sorts of effects on the maturing whisky than the air outside of the barrel has after the whisky has been dumped and bottled, then I don't have an answer to that question. I think that it would take a careful study to learn what the status is within the maturing cask of the air which is present, and how it is influenced over time. I suspect that the influence of the maturing spirit on the air in the barrel is probably just as strong as is the influence of that air on the spirit itself. In other words, without really knowing, I suspect that the air in a maturing barrel loses its oxidative potential over time, and probably much its oxygen content.

A very interesting discussion indeed. Thank you for the insight victor.

I've been toying with the idea of buying inert gas but I found it seemed quite hard to come by here in Sweden. It maybe I'm not using the proper channels. It is a bit of a double edged sword though I think. A whisky might turn ''bad'' but then bounce back to good again. You would lose some of the experience when decanting.

Of course of you have something you consider perfect and essential to preserve it would be great to be able to do so.

You would lose some of the experience when decanting or gassing, I meant to say

Not much feedback but I do use it for some open bottles of whisky if intending to store it for a while (years).

I do it because I already have a can of this lying around but it is more for the wine.