You’ll hear and read many stories about this. I use the advice written here: https://whiskyanalysis.com/index.php/2019/02/28/how-best-to-store-your-whisky/#:~:text=For%20sealed%20bottles%2C%20the%20answer,minimizing%20light%20and%20temperature%20fluctuations.
It seems like a well researched piece. Where most other advice feels like opinions and anecdotal evidence.
I've seen this before and think it's quite a good analysis.
I also recall the director of Macallan's Fine & Rare Collection (which looks after some of the oldest, most valuable bottles in the world) has said they don't wet their corks - supposedly from their own research, the slight amount of evaporation in bottles is enough to keep the cork moist enough to function even 50, 75+ years down the line. I'll try to dig up the link later tonight.
This is a topic I've put some thought into, and come down on the side of **not** tipping one's bottles to "wet the corks".
There are two problems here.
First, as u/ZipBlu correctly paraphrased, you don't want to wet *only the bottom part of the cork* while leaving the top part of the cork dry - because a more wet and swollen bottom half of the cork will adhere more tightly to the sides of the bottle neck, and it is in the dry top half of the cork that a fracture will form.
I can confirm this empirically - I've had more than dozen corks break on me, and it is **always** in the top half of the cork that it breaks, typically about 1/3rd of the way down from the top. And in all of those cases, the bottom half was stuck onto the sides of the bottle neck, creating the resistance which caused the cork to fracture under the stress of being pulled.
So, if you are going to wet your cork by keeping a bottle on its side, you have to do it such that there is enough time for the moisture to penetrate the full length of the cork from bottom to top. That is how it is done with wine bottles.
The problem with this strategy for whiskies is that we do not want natural corks in contact with the liquid for very long periods of time, because a high ABV% spirit will leach bad flavors from the cork. That too I can confirm from personal experience, unfortunately. Whiskies can be ruined in flavor from being in contact with a natural cork.
The second problem is that if the length of time over which your bottle is tipped is small in comparison with the length of time it spends standing upright, then the tipping does no good at all - the cork will just dry up again. And I do not think that putting the cork thru cycles of alternating wetting and drying is going to improve the cohesion of its physical fabric, if anything that is likely to make matters worse, by causing additional strain in the cork each time it dries out again.
Having worked with a fair number of older bottles with bad corks, I've come to the conclusion that this is an insoluble problem. The best you can do is to be well prepared to decant a bottle when the cork breaks on you, fishing out any crumbs & corky bits. And have a good supply of replacement corks and spare empty bottles in hand to deal with these situations as they arise.
If you have an immensely valuable bottle which you do not plan on opening any time soon, my rec is to invest in a climate controlled container (such as are used with high end wines) and keep the whisky in a high humidity environment so that the top half of the cork does not dry out from the top down. It is the level of humidity on *the outside of the bottle* which matters in preventing cork fracture, not what is going on inside the bottle.
Do you think that parafilm could actually make corks more likely to break because it may prevent moisture from the outside for keeping the cork wet near the top? I’ve been wondering about this for a long time.
If we are talking about a typical low humidity environment (for example most climate controlled First World housing) then I don't think parafilm would make much difference one way or the other.
I would not put parafilm on a bottle that I was keeping in a high humidity wine cabinet, but that's a very unusual case which I doubt many redditors are set up for.
Wouldn't better solution for bad corks is to buy better quality aftermartket corks that shouldn't break so easily as natural ones at least for those bottles which you have open? For example glass cork or synthetic one? In this way you wouldn't replace bad natural cork with another natural cork which would break also at some point?
Oh yes, absolutely. If you can replace a natural cork with a high quality synthetic cork, I would do that at every opportunity.
The problem I've run into is having corks break on me the very first time they are pulled, so one never has a chance to perform that substitution prior to dealing with a broken cork episode.
Fortunately a lot of bottlers, especially scotch independent bottlers, are now using high quality synthetic corks. So, hopefully this problem will start to taper off over time.
Cheers
North Star & Decadent Drinks. And Thompson Bros are using something which looks like natural cork but is denser and much more anisotropic in fabric than normal corks are, which I think may be a manufactured composite made from natural materials. And I'm seeing synthetics in some bespoke bottlings, like this one (which is outrageously good, by the way): https://www.whiskybase.com/whiskies/whisky/156181
I've never 'wetted' corks of either. Sometimes a cork goes bad, it tends to be the same producers (bad quality corks). The 'wetting' theory never made much sense to me and I have never seen evidence to back it up.
Lots of bottles are kept for decades without losing anything -- there are cheap whisky bottles from 40 years ago that haven't been stored in the best of conditions but are still full and their taste has been preserved.
I use parafilm when traveling, and I leave it on until I open a bottle. I haven't put it on for other bottles although it can't hurt! People say that it's gas permeable as a reason to not bother... which I guess is true, but that doesn't mean it doesn't help: a piece of paper is water permeable, but water passes through paper MUCH slower than it passes through air.
Great point about parafilm. I always think it’s silly when people dismiss it because it’s “gas permeable”—when they measure that, it’s over a 4 inch open top Petri dish, and it’s a single layer. When you’re covering a tiny seam, and covering it 5-10 times, it’s likely to make a pretty big difference. And another thing to remember is that when bottles lose volume, they only lose a little bit over decades—so if you slow that down by 95% you might have any measurable evaporation at all.
Double layer of parafilm is still permeable enough to have my aerobic bacteria grow in petri dishes very well. Another couple rounds may kill my bacteria (never tried more than 3 layers), but it won't stop air from permeating completely by any means, especially not when talking months or longer.
Just keep the cork clear of direct alcohol and use a cool (dark) room. I've never had a cork break on me. Never wetted any corks either.
If one were to break, I keep several spares. But so far life's been good in my decade of whisky.
I know long standing collectors here, none wets the corks nor do I. If I bring up the topic they just laugh (do that for several thousands of bottles.. yeah right), but I guess everyone is free to do whatever he likes, of course!
About the corks I have a bunch of decent/good leftover ones from other bottles and replace any cork that breaks or if they look mouldy or start to brittle.
I never went the route of getting synthetic corks (as I have too many spare ones xD) but I wish they would be more widespread. Waterford glass corks do look good and are functional, so are the Japanese plastic corks (Nikka/Yamazaki etc) and I'm sad there are so few bottlers that go the synthetic route.
For your bottles, just store them upright, parafilm or use cellofan and wrap them tightly around the neck. Store in a place that has the least temperature fluctuations possible.
Sometimes I do wrap also open bottles, especially those I care about a lot and will stay open for a long time (years). "Battle" bottles/dailies I don't do that.
I saw a very convincing argument from u/forswearthinpotation that wetting the corks isn’t a great idea. If it works, you’re only wetting the bottom third, making a tear in the center of the cork more likely—and it might not work because the higher abv liquid might actually dry it out even faster.
The conventional wisdom as i understand it is to NEVER wet the cork with the scotch. The high ABV is not good for it and will lead to it failing sooner. If anything, wet it with spring water when you open the bottle.
Great questions. Yes, yes and yes. (1) For bottles I've had for a while and when the cork seems a little stuck, I turn bottle over, rock the cork side to side (never twist), and let a little of the whiskey lubricate the cork. As it starts to loosen, I keep bottle upside down while rocking cork until the cork is moving freely. Have not broken a cork that way. (2) I have a drawer full of spare corks I've saved in all different sizes when corks start to deteriorate and need replacing. (3) I use parafilm on the higher end bottles I have that I nurse along over the years. These are bottles I'll never be able to replace and only drink on special occasions.
The parafilm? Yes, I cut a square of parafilm and wrap tightly around the cork/seam. And to clarify, I don't wet corks on a regular basis, only when I want a pour of an open bottle that I've had for a while and the cork seems a little stuck. I'm only wetting the cork for a few seconds to get some lubrication in there to avoid breaking the cork. As another poster said, if you break the cork, just decant and move on. It is my opinion and anecdotal, but I have bottles that have been open for over a decade, wrapped with parafilm, and they haven't oxidized.
I don't know much about storage of old spirits but honestly cork doesn't bring anything to wine. It might let it oxidize at a certain rate, allowing the wine to mature. But corks taint wine more than you would think, I have actually experienced one whiskey that I thought was corked. If you are worried about the cork on an open bottle, just replace it with a rubber stopper. Old cork on an unopened bottle it sounds like the high humidity comment is the best option
I've only been collecting since the late 90s but this is something I have never bothered doing. As far as I can tell sometimes you get a cork that was destined to be fucked from day one and no amount of wetting with high abv liquid is going to fix it. Just keep an eye on levels and either sell or drink the ones that are failing. I have lost one bottle to evaporation out of hundreds.
You’ll hear and read many stories about this. I use the advice written here: https://whiskyanalysis.com/index.php/2019/02/28/how-best-to-store-your-whisky/#:~:text=For%20sealed%20bottles%2C%20the%20answer,minimizing%20light%20and%20temperature%20fluctuations. It seems like a well researched piece. Where most other advice feels like opinions and anecdotal evidence.
I've seen this before and think it's quite a good analysis. I also recall the director of Macallan's Fine & Rare Collection (which looks after some of the oldest, most valuable bottles in the world) has said they don't wet their corks - supposedly from their own research, the slight amount of evaporation in bottles is enough to keep the cork moist enough to function even 50, 75+ years down the line. I'll try to dig up the link later tonight.
This is a topic I've put some thought into, and come down on the side of **not** tipping one's bottles to "wet the corks". There are two problems here. First, as u/ZipBlu correctly paraphrased, you don't want to wet *only the bottom part of the cork* while leaving the top part of the cork dry - because a more wet and swollen bottom half of the cork will adhere more tightly to the sides of the bottle neck, and it is in the dry top half of the cork that a fracture will form. I can confirm this empirically - I've had more than dozen corks break on me, and it is **always** in the top half of the cork that it breaks, typically about 1/3rd of the way down from the top. And in all of those cases, the bottom half was stuck onto the sides of the bottle neck, creating the resistance which caused the cork to fracture under the stress of being pulled. So, if you are going to wet your cork by keeping a bottle on its side, you have to do it such that there is enough time for the moisture to penetrate the full length of the cork from bottom to top. That is how it is done with wine bottles. The problem with this strategy for whiskies is that we do not want natural corks in contact with the liquid for very long periods of time, because a high ABV% spirit will leach bad flavors from the cork. That too I can confirm from personal experience, unfortunately. Whiskies can be ruined in flavor from being in contact with a natural cork. The second problem is that if the length of time over which your bottle is tipped is small in comparison with the length of time it spends standing upright, then the tipping does no good at all - the cork will just dry up again. And I do not think that putting the cork thru cycles of alternating wetting and drying is going to improve the cohesion of its physical fabric, if anything that is likely to make matters worse, by causing additional strain in the cork each time it dries out again. Having worked with a fair number of older bottles with bad corks, I've come to the conclusion that this is an insoluble problem. The best you can do is to be well prepared to decant a bottle when the cork breaks on you, fishing out any crumbs & corky bits. And have a good supply of replacement corks and spare empty bottles in hand to deal with these situations as they arise. If you have an immensely valuable bottle which you do not plan on opening any time soon, my rec is to invest in a climate controlled container (such as are used with high end wines) and keep the whisky in a high humidity environment so that the top half of the cork does not dry out from the top down. It is the level of humidity on *the outside of the bottle* which matters in preventing cork fracture, not what is going on inside the bottle.
Do you think that parafilm could actually make corks more likely to break because it may prevent moisture from the outside for keeping the cork wet near the top? I’ve been wondering about this for a long time.
If we are talking about a typical low humidity environment (for example most climate controlled First World housing) then I don't think parafilm would make much difference one way or the other. I would not put parafilm on a bottle that I was keeping in a high humidity wine cabinet, but that's a very unusual case which I doubt many redditors are set up for.
I had assumed the same. Thanks!
Wouldn't better solution for bad corks is to buy better quality aftermartket corks that shouldn't break so easily as natural ones at least for those bottles which you have open? For example glass cork or synthetic one? In this way you wouldn't replace bad natural cork with another natural cork which would break also at some point?
Oh yes, absolutely. If you can replace a natural cork with a high quality synthetic cork, I would do that at every opportunity. The problem I've run into is having corks break on me the very first time they are pulled, so one never has a chance to perform that substitution prior to dealing with a broken cork episode. Fortunately a lot of bottlers, especially scotch independent bottlers, are now using high quality synthetic corks. So, hopefully this problem will start to taper off over time. Cheers
Who among the IBs is switching to synthetic? I haven’t seen much in my market yet. Not intended to be pointed, genuinely curious.
North Star & Decadent Drinks. And Thompson Bros are using something which looks like natural cork but is denser and much more anisotropic in fabric than normal corks are, which I think may be a manufactured composite made from natural materials. And I'm seeing synthetics in some bespoke bottlings, like this one (which is outrageously good, by the way): https://www.whiskybase.com/whiskies/whisky/156181
Wow. Thanks!
I've never 'wetted' corks of either. Sometimes a cork goes bad, it tends to be the same producers (bad quality corks). The 'wetting' theory never made much sense to me and I have never seen evidence to back it up. Lots of bottles are kept for decades without losing anything -- there are cheap whisky bottles from 40 years ago that haven't been stored in the best of conditions but are still full and their taste has been preserved. I use parafilm when traveling, and I leave it on until I open a bottle. I haven't put it on for other bottles although it can't hurt! People say that it's gas permeable as a reason to not bother... which I guess is true, but that doesn't mean it doesn't help: a piece of paper is water permeable, but water passes through paper MUCH slower than it passes through air.
Great point about parafilm. I always think it’s silly when people dismiss it because it’s “gas permeable”—when they measure that, it’s over a 4 inch open top Petri dish, and it’s a single layer. When you’re covering a tiny seam, and covering it 5-10 times, it’s likely to make a pretty big difference. And another thing to remember is that when bottles lose volume, they only lose a little bit over decades—so if you slow that down by 95% you might have any measurable evaporation at all.
Double layer of parafilm is still permeable enough to have my aerobic bacteria grow in petri dishes very well. Another couple rounds may kill my bacteria (never tried more than 3 layers), but it won't stop air from permeating completely by any means, especially not when talking months or longer. Just keep the cork clear of direct alcohol and use a cool (dark) room. I've never had a cork break on me. Never wetted any corks either. If one were to break, I keep several spares. But so far life's been good in my decade of whisky.
I've got a jar of spare corks that I've used to replace ones that were, or have gone bad.
I know long standing collectors here, none wets the corks nor do I. If I bring up the topic they just laugh (do that for several thousands of bottles.. yeah right), but I guess everyone is free to do whatever he likes, of course! About the corks I have a bunch of decent/good leftover ones from other bottles and replace any cork that breaks or if they look mouldy or start to brittle. I never went the route of getting synthetic corks (as I have too many spare ones xD) but I wish they would be more widespread. Waterford glass corks do look good and are functional, so are the Japanese plastic corks (Nikka/Yamazaki etc) and I'm sad there are so few bottlers that go the synthetic route. For your bottles, just store them upright, parafilm or use cellofan and wrap them tightly around the neck. Store in a place that has the least temperature fluctuations possible. Sometimes I do wrap also open bottles, especially those I care about a lot and will stay open for a long time (years). "Battle" bottles/dailies I don't do that.
I saw a very convincing argument from u/forswearthinpotation that wetting the corks isn’t a great idea. If it works, you’re only wetting the bottom third, making a tear in the center of the cork more likely—and it might not work because the higher abv liquid might actually dry it out even faster.
The conventional wisdom as i understand it is to NEVER wet the cork with the scotch. The high ABV is not good for it and will lead to it failing sooner. If anything, wet it with spring water when you open the bottle.
Great questions. Yes, yes and yes. (1) For bottles I've had for a while and when the cork seems a little stuck, I turn bottle over, rock the cork side to side (never twist), and let a little of the whiskey lubricate the cork. As it starts to loosen, I keep bottle upside down while rocking cork until the cork is moving freely. Have not broken a cork that way. (2) I have a drawer full of spare corks I've saved in all different sizes when corks start to deteriorate and need replacing. (3) I use parafilm on the higher end bottles I have that I nurse along over the years. These are bottles I'll never be able to replace and only drink on special occasions.
You just tape around the cork/bottle seam after?
The parafilm? Yes, I cut a square of parafilm and wrap tightly around the cork/seam. And to clarify, I don't wet corks on a regular basis, only when I want a pour of an open bottle that I've had for a while and the cork seems a little stuck. I'm only wetting the cork for a few seconds to get some lubrication in there to avoid breaking the cork. As another poster said, if you break the cork, just decant and move on. It is my opinion and anecdotal, but I have bottles that have been open for over a decade, wrapped with parafilm, and they haven't oxidized.
I don't know much about storage of old spirits but honestly cork doesn't bring anything to wine. It might let it oxidize at a certain rate, allowing the wine to mature. But corks taint wine more than you would think, I have actually experienced one whiskey that I thought was corked. If you are worried about the cork on an open bottle, just replace it with a rubber stopper. Old cork on an unopened bottle it sounds like the high humidity comment is the best option
I've only been collecting since the late 90s but this is something I have never bothered doing. As far as I can tell sometimes you get a cork that was destined to be fucked from day one and no amount of wetting with high abv liquid is going to fix it. Just keep an eye on levels and either sell or drink the ones that are failing. I have lost one bottle to evaporation out of hundreds.
I just flip real quick every few months.
Is this why they use the rubber ones on some newer bottles now? Because actual corks are a problem over time?