@cascode @ContemplativeFox thank you both very much for the info on allowing bottles to sit, aging, and air content! The provided information is enlightening and helpful! I shall abide!

@ContemplativeFox I’ve definitely had great results with it. There are other inert gas canister products that use nitrogen etc and I’m sure they all work as well. I chose argon because 1. It was available easily and 2. My wife uses it in her work to preserve research specimens and she confirmed for me that gas evacuation is a real thing and not just popular juju.

@cascode I hadn't heard about argon for whiskey, but it makes sense. Thanks for the tip! Seems like a good choice for something really special that gets poured once a year or something, but otherwise pretty expensive. Sounds like argon might be necessary if preserving for a long time with an open bottle, even if it's been decanted into smaller bottles as its volume declines.

@ContemplativeFox I’ve tasted from bottles that were produced in the 1970s and sealed until opening 40-50 years later and they vary. When the seal is good and the original whisky was high quality they are time-capsules of joy. A firmly stuck cork that has to be cut away from an old bottle can be a good sign as it means the seal was air-tight. You do need to give old whiskies like this time to “wake up” after opening and they improve noticeably after having had just a little air for a couple of weeks. On the other hand a cracked, flawed or poorly sealed cork can allow too much air in over time and the whisky can end up dull and lifeless. Of course, with something very old it’s hard to know whether it was just mediocre to start with. As for bottles that were opened and sampled but closed again with only a small amount removed, I’ve not had wide experience because an open whisky does not tend to last that long in our house 😁. Probably the longest I’ve kept a bottle in that condition would be 3 years but in all such cases it has been a particularly good whisky I wanted to preserve so I’ve used inert gas to save it. I had an Old Pulteney 21 open for just under 3 years after they stopped production and I wanted to prolong the enjoyment. I did the same with a Macallan 25 I bought in 2007 for my 50th birthday (back when Macallan was still worth drinking). It was open with gas treatment for about 3 years and did not change. Argon gas works a treat but the trick with any inert gas is to use a *LOT*. Don’t follow the instructions and use just a 2-second squirt to leave a thin layer of gas over the liquid – that is for wine that will only be left for a day or two before consumption. To preserve whisky you need to flood the bottle and evacuate all the air, and you need to do this after every opening.

@cascode I've never had a bottle open for 10 years. I worry that if I open a bottle I love and really want to savor I'll end up with a flat dram after that long even if it's only down by 100 ml or so. Do you have any experience with really old bottles that still had a lot of volume?

@JoelyO Most whiskies do change after being opened, and the lower the level gets (more air to oxidise) the more they change. Whether it is for good or bad varies, but in my experience whiskies improve with a little air. There is a limit to this and once you get down to about 1/4 full the whisky runs the risk of quickly turning "flat". It's hard to quantify, but it does happen. I have one friend who is not a spirits drinker but he keeps a couple of bottles on hand for visitors. Last time I was over there he produced a bottle of Blantons single cask that had about 2 inches left ... and it was dreadful. Flat, characterless and actually unpleasantly tainted in flavour. When I asked him how old it was he saidf he must have bought it 10 years ago and it had been opened that long. Yikes.

@JoelyO I find that more often than not a bottle gets better when left open on the shelf. This is particularly the case with bourbon and rye, which often start out too hot and lacking in subtlety, but become more balanced and complex with air. Scotch is a lot riskier (especially if blended) because it's already so mellow, so rounding its corners can flatten the whole thing. A caveat is that I haven't tried aging anything more than a couple of years and I have tried a couple of much older bottles that had gone bad, so if I were storing opened whisky long-term, I would look into a way to remove (or at least reduce) the air.

@cascode If it isn't the first dram of the night, the sulphur isn't really noticeable. On a fresh palate though, I really can't get past it. It's like they took the farmyard too far. I'm hoping that the sulphur fades over time.

I have had that happen but only on rare occasion as well when I thought I loved something at the bar then not so much from my own bottle once I got it. I am curious - as a newbie - DO whiskies get better after being opened and allowed to sit awhile? Curious if that is what may happen at times with bar whisky - especially top shelf bottles that may not get ordered much or from bars that sell more fo-fo mixed cocktails or beer over whisky. So if I open a new bottle and let it sit a bit is it better or no? You may not have an answer and that is fine. Just thinking out loud.

Time for me to revisit my bottle - palates change and I used to love this stuff but it’s been ignored for a year or two

Oh dear. It's a while since I've had a bottle of Highland Park 12 but it used to be a standby. I never noticed a particularly sulphurous nature, but times and whisky do insist on changing. By the sound of it Edringtion need to pick up their act with Highland Park. I don't think there is anything bad up at the distillery, but the owning company might be pushing things in a questionable direction. Their marketing drones certainly are.