O. B. E. ...open bottle exposure.

Maybe it's the angels....

@Robert99 in the 1990's Bowmore had a lavender/flowery soap/manufactured fragrance effect tainting their bottles. It was referred to as FWP...French Whores Perfume.

About bottles and oxidisation, I would like to make a different point of view. A whisky doesn't begin to oxidise once the bottle is opened. It has already spent it's entire life oxidising in the cask. When placed n the glass bottle it is being placed on pause. The barrel is at the mercy of it's environment, contracting and de-contracting with fluctuations in the temperature. The oak is porous and oxidisation occurs to the spirit inside.

Some on this board have pointed out that a higher ABV whisk(e)y suffers less from change due to oxidisation once a bottle is opened, compared to lower ABV ones. Since the spirit is being oxidised in the cask at 'cask strength', and is in oak instead of a glass bottle, then the impact must be somewhat reduced, right? I think this is why an older whisk(e)y that is bottled at a higher ABV may resist the negative impact of oxygen. Compare this to a young NAS, that may have spirit in it's blending of (and this is just some figures for an example) 3-8 years of age, then the 3 year old component of the blending process will suffer worse from oxidisation that the 8 year part that has an advance 5 years in the cask oxidising under controlled conditions with a higher ABV.

An example of cask oxidisation may be observed when comparing a freshly opened bottle of a peated whisky from the same distillery - bottled at the same ABV. That is, the 10 year old will have a higher PPM than the 18 year old.The extra 8 years of oxidisation in the cask has subdued the peat levels.

Question 1 - can the act of pouring from the bottle expose the contents to more whisky than opening the cask and taking a sample with the whisky thief ? (or whatever that tool is called for drawing a sample from the cask).

Question 2 - Since a bottle is typically 700-750ml, compared to a Bourbon cask which holds 53 gallons/ 200 litres, would it not reason that if both where opened for the same amount of time that the bottle and it's smaller volume of liquid, would 'suffer' greater impact from exposure?

@Frost Some interesting speculation there, but ultimately more questions than answers. We need some sort of industry expert to chime in and clarify this for us.

@MadSingleMalt, by all means, please consider this forum open to posts concerning the more highly recognizable form of the OBE acronym Old Bottle Effect...and also the widely used Out-of-Body Experience.

@paddockjudge What about the local Beer Store's contribution to the whisky industry... Ontario Bottle Exchange (for cash)

@paddockjudge Or, my favourite... Outstanding Bladnoch Experience.

@Nozinan, I think that every time I've sampled with you that you've never had the 'really good' Bladnochs available. I am hoping in the future, however, to try some.

@Victor That 10 YO was very good! It may be a few years before I exhaust my open bottles (the 10 included) but let's aim at cracking another in 3-4 years. I'll add it to the "only to be opened with @Victor" list.

I think we should all get the O. B. E. (Order of the British Empire) for our substantial contribution to the economy of the United Kingdom.

@BlueNote Possibly, but I'd rather we dispensed with he Empire and gained true independence, leaving us to adopt Other Budgetary Enterprises and support cask strength Canadian Whisky.