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What is the Old Bottle Effect?
2022-12-14The February 8th will be the second International Scotch Day and we've been looking into the Old Bottle Effect.
Old Bottle Effect is the changing of a whisky's flavor over time. This is also true of wine and the primary cause is thought to be oxidization, or in other words the reaction of the liquid with oxygen. In wine and whisky, oxygen is slowly released through the cork over time. For wine this can actually be desired as it tends to change wines from fruity flavors to nuttier flavors but only with small amounts of oxygen released over time. For wines where a fruity flavor is desired, bottlers will seal instead of use a cork to ensure that flavor is not lost.
However, too much oxygen will spoil both whisky and wine, hence why both are corked in most instances. In wine bottling, nitrogen is used to displace oxygen to stop the product spoiling. Nitrogen is an inert gas so will not react and change the flavor of the wine. For this purpose, nitrogen will either be provided by a nitrogen gas generator or from nitrogen cylinders.
The February 8th will be the second International Scotch Day and we've been looking into the Old Bottle Effect.
Old Bottle Effect is the changing of a whisky's flavor over time. This is also true of wine and the primary cause is thought to be oxidization, or in other words the reaction of the liquid with oxygen. In wine and whisky, oxygen is slowly released through the cork over time. For wine this can actually be desired as it tends to change wines from fruity flavors to nuttier flavors but only with small amounts of oxygen released over time. For wines where a fruity flavor is desired, bottlers will seal instead of use a cork to ensure that flavor is not lost.
However, too much oxygen will spoil both whisky and wine, hence why both are corked in most instances. In wine bottling, nitrogen is used to displace oxygen to stop the product spoiling. Nitrogen is an inert gas so will not react and change the flavor of the wine. For this purpose, nitrogen will either be provided by a nitrogen gas generator or from nitrogen cylinders.