Wait for friends to open a new bottle?

That depends. I've got some bottles sitting in my reserve stock that I'm intending to save for tasting events, so I won't open those, but I've got others that I bought out of curiousity and will open in due course, on my own, when shelf space permits (as I did with my Laphroaig QC). Most likely I'll share them later, but I'll probably open them on my own.

I get your point @YakLord . Thanks for your opinion.

@bourbondrinker, your sociability is quite admirable. And Connosr is, after all, "The Whisky Social Network". Opening new bottles with friends is great and quite festive, but sometimes you want to be confident of what you have gotten BEFORE you spring it on others. If opening a bottle by yourself were something to be condemned, then I would have been damned 100+ times by now! I do prefer to open a new bottle with my whisky-lovin' wife and sister on hand to sample it if I can, though. They are my most immediate and regular whisky friends.

Open it up! You can have a couple drams, the bottle will still be mostly full, and there will still be plenty to share.

I try to open as many of my bottles with 'whiskyJoe' who has become a good friend and happens to be my next door neighbour. Doing so is a nice way to share the experience/anticipation of a new bottle with others, while also helping me to pace the opening of bottles in my cabinet.

I used to prefer to wait to open a new bottle until my regular accomplice comes along. However, more and more, I am convinced that a bottle of whisky needs to breathe before being tasted (just like wine). This is my personal experience, anyways.

So you are all pointing to the same direction...GOOD!!! Slainte everyone!

Sorry to be a party pooper, but I prefer to open up a new bottle by myself. I love sharing it with friends and often do, but not after I have discovered the new bottle by myself. The reason for doing this: I want to be able to form my own opinion - totally by myself - before sharing, so that I am not influenced by the other's opinions (which I value, of course). So about 80% of my new bottles are cracked by myself, tasted and described, before I let others join in. The other 20% is opened immediately with friends and family as the occassion often requires, of course.

Haha....yeah, maybe a bottle of Bells...

I myself have several bottles that are sitting there waiting for a special occasion to be opened such as a bottle of Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix, Old Pulteney 21 yr old, Port Ellen 30 yr old, etc. Those I WILL not open for idle curiosity due to the difficulty in obtaining them. I'll likely wait for a gathering to crack those.

However I also maintain a stash of other bottles, less difficult to get, that aren't opened at anyone time, but whenever the urge strikes open they will be! But I ALWAYS open a bottle with my wife to share with her. Never just by myself.

@SquidgyAsh I hate all you guys who have wives who love whisky. Mine loves vodka. And champagne. Terrible.

@McGrain Better a champagne loving wife which you're in love with, than none.

@Wills ...debatable.

@McGrain My wife hated ALL alcohol until our honeymoon. It's all about the way you introduce someone to it. One night in a whisky club and now she's hooked! Of course she's not the whisky fiend I am but she tries every single bottle I open :D

I'm happy my wife only wants to smell whisky, but not taste it. Otherwise, my stash would deplete a lot more rapidly.

@markjedi1 Sometimes it's nice to get through the bottles quicker though - then you get to try new ones! (My wife doesn't drink, so it takes me a long time to get through bottles. A good thing for good bottles, but often it's too long if you know what i mean).

@SquidgyAsh Did I misread this or did you club her with a whisky bottle? I had a wee look at your page there, very nice, my favourite whisky bar is on the Isle Of Skye, the bar behind the Sligachan hotel. It's got a really nice menu although not an extraordinary one, but the scenery is outstanding. I got reasonably drunk off thirty year old Macallan there on my thirtieth birthday and doing so with a view of the Cuillins may be the most Scottish thing it is possible for a man to do. I hope you get to Scotland one day and if you do please don't miss out on this - it's indelibly Scottish as an experience but one that you could enjoy were you from another world, i think. I reinact it every two years or so (with a cheaper dram).

@McGrain Hahaha nop not that far :D I just got her interested in the history and different processes that whisky is distilled (although to be fair I got half of it wrong that I've since learned since joining this site) any way we decided to on our anniversary night on our honeymoon go to this awesome little whisky bar near the hotel where we tried something like a dozen whiskies. Most didn't strike her fancy, until we got to the Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix which she LOVED. When we got back she tracked down a very expensive bottle for me for Christmas and it's been history ever since. Every whisky I try she tries. I don't know any other women personally who've tasted over 70 odd whiskies in the last six months or so haha.

It looks like we might make it to Scotland this next year for the Islay festival, but whisky bar on the Isle of Sky sounds absolutely brilliant and if we can we're SO going! Thanks for the info my friend!!!

@SquidgyAsh No probs. Hopefully we're both active here next year and I can read about your own opinion of the Sligachan whisky bar, and of Skye which I think is the most beautiful place in the world (or at least the most beautiful place i've seen). If you want any details hit me up nearer the time.