January 28th, 2010

When your bottle (and heart) breaks…

John Hansell

Okay, it’s time to get the box of tissues and tell us about that special bottle of yours that broke (or was stolen, lost, burned, emptied into a punchbowl, etc.)

I already told you the sad story about how my rather generous sample of White Bowmore was crushed back in 2008. You can read about it here. I’m still getting over that one.

How about you? Has anything like this ever happened to you? If so, take your shoes off, lie down on our virtual couch, and tell us all about it.

It’s good therapy and, as the saying goes,  “misery loves company.”

Category: Humor,Opinions,Scotch whisky,Whisky storage Tags: 52 Comments

October 25th, 2008

I can’t believe I did this

John Hansell

So, I had all these review samples of whiskies accumulating on the hutch in my house. I put them in a box and carried them down to my basement where I keep them stored on shelves, organized by size, category, etc.

Some of the samples were full 750 ml bottles; others were 100 ml or 200 ml samples bottles. I keep the smaller sample bottles on shelves in a closet on the far end of the basement. On my way to that closet, I sat the box down on a dehumidifier to drop off a couple 750 ml bottles on a shelf. (The box was heavy and I didn’t want to bend over and sit it on the floor.)

Yes, you guessed it. As soon as I took one bottle out of the box, it upset the weight distribution and the box fell off the dehumidifier and went crashing to the floor. Of the 20 or so review bottles, one broke. Of course, it wasn’t my sample of 6 year old old bourbon or 10 year old scotch.

It was my review sample of White Bowmore. It was in a 200 ml bottle and was at least1/3 full. (It was a very generous sample.) Given that the whisky costs $6,000 a bottle, that was a good $600 worth of whisky. I forgot that my White Bowmore sample was even in with the rest of the whiskies. If I did, I would have taken it out and treated it a little more carefully.

I already reviewed the whisky, but I was planning on sharing what I had left with some of the restaurant and bar owners where I host whiskey tastings. So much for that.

How about you? Did you ever lose a special whisky due to an accident or blunder like this? Please do tell. Misery loves company.

Category: Opinions,Scotch whisky,Whisky storage 21 Comments

October 13th, 2008

Transporting whisky: update

John Hansell

After all the discussions we had on how we transport our whisky from one place to another, would you like to know what the pros do?

WhiskyFest San Francisco was this past Friday night. If you’ve been following my blog (and all our WhiskyFest promotions) over the past several months, you know that we brought out of retirement the past Macallan Distillery Managers and Managing Directors for each one of them to create a unique bottle of Macallan to be tasted at WhiskyFest San Francisco for a small charitable donation.

These whiskies are very precious and rare. So how did Macallan safely transport their whisky  from Scotland all the way to San Fransisco? They used Wine Cruzer. It’s a black padded container of varying configurations and prices designed to ship wine, but it works for whisky too. The Macallan guys gave me the whisky (inside the Wine Cruzer) the morning of WhiskyFest for safe keeping and I also shipped the bottles (and what’s left of the whisky) back to our office in the Wine Cruiser to be used at our charity table at WhiskyFest New York on November 11th.

I had plenty of time to inspect and use the Wine Cruzer and, I like it so much, I’m going to get one for myself. They’re fairly expensive (the one I want is going to run me about $300) but, considering the value of whisky these days, It’s a great feeling to know that I will be transporting my whisky knowing that they will not break. They also are designed for travel (wheels, telescoping handle, etc.) and look pretty cool too!

You might not ship that much whisky to warrant to cost. With three WhiskyFests each year and overseas trips Scotland and Ireland, I know that I’ll use it.

Some whisky bottles are much wider in shape than standard wine bottles, but there are models of the Wine Cruzer that will accommodate champagne bottles and magnum bottles, so there is some “wiggle room” there.

Anyway, I thought you might like to know about this.

Category: Opinions,Travel,Whisky storage,WhiskyFest 3 Comments

September 22nd, 2008

How are you storing your whisky?

John Hansell

With the prices of whisky (and whiskey) going up so much, many of you are sitting on whisky you bought years ago at a lower price, or you are buying now in bulk to save a few bucks. Either way, you’re sitting on some bottles of whisky.

Rich, over at my thread on whisky values, thought it might be a good idea to discuss how we’re all storing our whisky, and I agree.

So, how are you storing your whisky? I’ll start by telling you what I’m doing.

I know that I’m not as meticulous or scientific as some of you might be. I have a bar and a whisky “library” in my basement. My whiskies are all sitting on shelves, upright, and out of sunlight or fluorescent lighting at room temperature. 

My “library” is a room leading to my bar which stores all my unopened bottles. (Yes, I plan to drink every one of them, with some help, before I die. They are for eventual drinking.) They are arranged by category and region so I can access them as needed. I don’t put any tape or sealant around the bottle stoppers, but I do keep an eye on their levels. If I see one starting to lose volume, it gives me an excuse to open it up and drink it with my friends or perhaps at one of the whisky tastings I host.

My bar is where I keep my opened bottles, again arranged by category. For bottles that I think I will have for more than 3-6 months, I use an inert gas. There are a few commercial products on the market, but what I use is Private Preserve. I shoot a few quick squirts into the bottle before I put the stopper back on after pouring. The gas displaces the oxygen. I have not had any problems, and it is fairly easy to use and very inexpensive.

What about the rest of you? What works? What doesn’t? Any horror stories you want to share with us?

Category: Opinions,Whisky storage 37 Comments



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