Does an ordinary bottle of Scotch Whiskey (Teachers of something) mature in the bottle with age?

Question

If I bought a bottle tomorrow and kept it for 20 years without opening it, would it be matured and worth a small fortune? How is Whiskey best kept if stored in the bottle, will it ever go off? What do you think might be my return on a £20 bottle in 20 year's time?
I don't drink Whiskey btw so it would only be an investment or something to give to someone on a special occasion.

Answer 1

Whisky does not mature in the bottle only in the cask. When its bottled you can drink it right away or keep it for 20 years no problem. Whisky from one cask is known as Single Malt and will have specific characteristics depending on where it is distilled and stored (eg MACALLEN). These whiskies are aged ie 8 years, 10 years...25 years, which indicates how long they were left to mature in the cask. The longer on the cask the more expensive. Is older better....its a matter of taste!
The kind of whisky you are describing sounds like a Blended Whisky which is a mixture of a number of Single Malts which in turn produces its own characteristic. These are usually cheaper than Single Malts, but not always. In 20 years, in real terms, worth the same.
If you know what your doing sure the right stuff would be an investment, however I had a limited edition bottle of Black & White (now defunct) which my wife opened and gave one drink to a guest while I was not around. I had to drink the rest myself! Not much of an investment eh? Be careful, stick to what you know.

Answer 2

Maturation

Once distilled, the "new make spirit" is placed into oak casks for the maturation process. Historically, casks previously used for sherry were used (as barrels are expensive, and there was a ready market for used sherry butts). Nowadays these casks previously contained sherry or bourbon, but more exotic casks such as port, cognac, calvados, beer, and Bordeaux wine are sometimes used. Bourbon production is a nearly inexhaustible generator of used barrels, due to a regulation requiring the use of new, North American white oak barrels.

The aging process results in evaporation, so each year in the cask causes a loss of volume as well as a reduction in alcohol. The 0.5–2.0% lost each year is known as the angel's share. Many whiskies along the west coast and on the Hebrides Islands are stored in open storehouses at the coast, allowing the salty sea air to pass on its flavour to the spirit. It is a little-known fact, however, that most so-called 'coastal' whiskies are matured in large central warehouses in the Scottish interior far from any influence of the sea.[citation needed] The distillate must age for at least three years to be called Scotch whisky, although most single malts are offered at a minimum of eight years of age. Some believe that older whiskies are inherently better, but others find that the age for optimum flavour development changes drastically from distillery to distillery, or even cask to cask. Older whiskies are inherently scarcer, however, so they usually command significantly higher prices.

Colour can give a clue to the type of cask (sherry or bourbon) used to age the whisky, although the addition of legal "spirit caramel", is sometimes used to darken an otherwise lightly coloured whisky. Sherried whisky is usually darker/ more amber in colour, while whisky aged in ex-bourbon casks is usually a golden-yellow/honey colour.

The late 1990s saw a trend towards "wood finishes" where fully matured whisky is moved from one barrel into one that had previously aged a different type of alcohol (e.g., port, madeira, rum, wine, etc) to add the "finish"

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottling number 1.81, for instance, is known by some as "the green Glenfarclas". It was finished in a rum cask after 27 years in an oak (ex-bourbon) barrel and is the colour of extra-virgin olive oil. This is an homage to the legendary "Green Springbank", also aged in rum casks.
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Bottling

With single malts, the now properly aged spirit may be "vatted", or "married", with other single malts (sometimes of different ages) from the same distillery. The whisky is generally diluted to a bottling strength of 40% - 46%.

Occasionally, distillers will release a "Cask Strength" edition, which is not diluted and will usually have an alcohol content of 50-60%.

Many distilleries are releasing "Single Cask" editions, which are the product of a single cask which has not been vatted with whisky from any other casks. These bottles will usually have a label which details the date the whisky was distilled, the date it was bottled, the number of bottles produced, the number of the particular bottle, and the number of the cask which produced the bottles.

Answer 3

No, scotch only ages in the casks it is stored in prior to bottling. However, depending on the type of bottle you invested in, it could be quite valuable in twenty years because of its overall scarcity. Because they make only so many bottles during each production year, if only a few bottles remain after twenty years and a market exists for them, because of the limited supply, the demand will be forced to pay more for them.

Answer 4

I've noticed Darren R has made the point I was going to chasten you about, Jonathan i.e if you want whisky you ask for Scotch if you want paint stripper or a wood preservative then you spell it as "whiskEy"

heavenlyhaggis

Answer 5

Conventional wisdom is that once it goes into the bottle, there will be no further maturation. Also if it's genuine Scotch, then there is no 'e' in "whisky" - it's only spelled with an 'e' if it's Irish (e.g. Jameson's, Bushmills) or American.

Answer 6

Scotch does not mature once bottled, only when still in the cask. Once bottled it will not go off.

Answer 7

in short no.
Whiskey is left to age in barrels in which it gradually evaporates through the wood which increases the flavours as the water evaporates leaving the flavour behind. not much evaporation takes place through a glass bottle.

Having said that after you have had a few glasses who is going to notice the difference

Answer 8

No. Once it is bottled it has matured as much as it is going to. It needs to still be in the Vat to mature.

Answer 9

It does "mature" ie age but not as quickly or as well as in wood vats. The actual volume, for some reason, appears to have something to do with it.

Answer 10

It will get better but I don't think it will be worth a whole lot in 20 years