Unlike some wines, distilled spirits do not age (or mature) in the bottle. This means that your 20 year old, unopened bottle of 18 year Scotch will taste the same as it would have the first day it was bottled. However, like beer certain liquors can "go bad" and after months or years almost any spirit in an opened bottle may loose some character, "punch" and flavor. To really answer this question we need to break it down into a few categories of distilled spirits and other bottles in the liquor cabinet.
Answers
February 22, 2010
Unlike some wines, distilled spirits do not age (or mature) in the bottle. This means that your 20 year old, unopened bottle of 18 year Scotch will taste the same as it would have the first day it was bottled. However, like beer certain liquors can "go bad" and after months or years almost any spirit in an opened bottle may loose some character, "punch" and flavor. To really answer this question we need to break it down into a few categories of distilled spirits and other bottles in the liquor cabinet.