Give the bottle a shake and look closely at the 'beading,' the ring of frothy bubbles that form. The bubbles will disappear rapidly in a whisky bottled at 40% alcohol by volume (ABV), but persist for 20-30 seconds in a whisky bottled with an ABV higher than 50%.
Inspect the seal: Hold the still-corked bottle up to the light and inspect the condition of the seal for any sign of piercing. Fakers may use an original bottle and cork but filled it with counterfeit, low quality whisky, often using a syringe to add the liquid to the bottle with only the barest hint of a mark.
Look for any damage in the packaging, discrepancies in the colours or size of the logo, smudged labels, spelling mistakes, tampered expiry dates, etc. For example, some counterfeit bottles have Johnnie Walker spelled with a 'y'.
The “22” is a liquor bottle permit number, the “77” is the year date code, the logo which is a stylized “G over C” stands for the glass company. The “D-1” is a distiller code number. “ 823” is a mold style number assigned to that particular bottle design or shape.
Not really. While the flavours may change slightly, whiskies don't go off the way other alcohol does. Once new air reacts with the liquid in the bottle, it begins to oxidise the whisky.
The best way to avoid oxidising your whisky tasting set, and changing the flavour, is simply to drink it. An open bottle of whisky lasts much longer if it's more than half full, with a shelf-life of up to five years. But once it reaches the halfway mark, this drops to just one or two years.
Opened Whisky has a shelf life of between six months and two years. What happens in the bottle during that time? First alcohol evaporates and the taste of the Whisky becomes smoother. Furthermore, the air in the bottle contains active gases that slowly react with the flavour substances of the Whisky.
You'll find a series of symbols, letters and numbers. Those numbers, letters and symbols – also called a bottle code — are the clues about where that glass container was made.
The stamp is a Resin Identification Code, or RIC, and the numbers indicate exactly what type of plastic is being used for that particular container: “1,” for example, is polyethylene terephthalate, a linguistic nightmare of a plastic typically found in soda bottles and peanut butter jars.
Don't worry, your whisky's not been flavoured by some hairy Scotsman's pins. Whisky 'legs' are the trails left on the inside of the glass post-swirling, and can actually reveal more information about your whisky than you'd think. The Whisky Professor explains.
The Free Spirits whiskey tasted like maple syrup and the Ritual Zero Proof whiskey tasted like smokey apple juice. They both lacked the mouthfeel of a good bourbon and had basically no bite. The Free Spirits whiskey also had a spiciness, similar to the Ritual gin and both imitation tequilas.
To get quick results, police often ask you to breathe into a breathalyzer, a device that checks your breath for alcohol. But another option may be to go to a medical facility to get a blood test, which provides more accurate results than a breathalyzer.
Fake alcohol may be packaged to look like well-known, legally produced brands and this is known as counterfeiting. Counterfeit alcohol is particularly dangerous, as it is produced without any control over what ingredients go into it.
The WhiskeySearcher app is a genius shortcut to your favourite spirits. Our database contains more than 1 million spirit offers from thousands of merchants across the globe. Use of label recognition tool to scan the whiskey bottle in front of you, or type the name in to learn more.
Bottles of whisky can also be counterfeited. There is actually a whole world of fake whisky which has been unearthed. More and more fake whisky is being noticed in the market—not on regular shelves, but at rare whisky auctions.
#7 – Other (BPA, Polycarbonate and LEXAN)
Number 7 plastics are used to make baby bottles, sippy cups, water cooler bottles and car parts. BPA is found in polycarbonate plastic food containers often marked on the bottom with the letters “PC” by the recycling label #7.
The "1" inside a triangle indicates PETE or PET, which is Polyethylene Terephthalate. This material is commonly used in soft drinks, beer, and water bottles. It's also found in ovenable food trays, salad dressing and vegetable oil containers, and mouthwash bottles.
Plastic #4 – LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene) Low density polyethylene is most commonly found in squeezable bottles, shopping bags, clothing, carpet, frozen food, bread bags, and some food wraps. Curbside recycling programs haven't been known to pick up this plastic, but more are starting to accept it.
The side of the bottle may be printed with the product or manufacturer's name, and this can be helpful in identifying your find. Also turn the bottle over. Many bottles have marks on the bottom, and these are important signatures of bottle manufacturers.
Nevertheless, not all plastics are actually BPA-free water bottles. Plastics that have the identification numbers 1,2,4 or 5 are what are considered safe as they are BPA-free.
Temperature, humidity, and light are all contributing factors to just how well the whisky will age. In a cask with the correct conditions in place, whisky will almost always become better with age.
It's best to keep these, like any other bottles of whisky, in a place that has low temperature and minimal light. A bottle is worth storing if there are at least two thirds remaining – after that the oxygen begins to alter the taste of the whisky, as there is more room for it to breathe.
50-year-old whisky is almost the holy grail in spirits terms. Very few casks of whisky will reach 50 years old and still be drinkable, representing a tiny, tiny fraction of a percent.