What do you have open?

@Nozinan

1) Laphroaig 18 Year Old, Balcones Texas Single Malt, Rock Hills Bourbon and 90 20 Year Old

2) Generally 4 to 6 open at a time - one bourbon, one to two other whiskey, two to three scotches (purposely try to range). One of the open ones will be decantered when it reaches 2/3 full (currently Rock Hills).

3) Look to finish when it gets to a 1/4 full - usually bring w me to a gathering and let others get a dram.

May your Monday's be more spectacular than your Sunday's but a tad less tremendous than your Tuesday's

@Nozinan, Fascinating topic indeed. I am currently rationalizing my open bottles. Earlier this year I had as many as 63 open; my personal peak was 80 last year...and to my astonishment, after completing a thorough count I have 86 open bottles.

The population of my cabinet is totally random and largely influenced by future tasting sessions; I strive to ensure that none of the bottles are corked, or perhaps are inferior iterations, and often open them prior to a session to ensure correctness of quality. Allowing declining balances of whisky to remain in their original bottles will allow each expression to evolve - some for the better and some not. Expensive bottles are sometimes gassed or decanted when a decline in quality is feared.

My frequency of use diminishes as the balance of the bottle declines. I often find myself with a couple of dozen shallow-filled bottles, as is currently the case. I have, on occasion, 'vatted' some of the nearly empty bottles to expedite the consolidation process...and enjoyed doing so. There's not a lot of decanting happening in my cabinet.

Results of the recent census are as follows.

60% NORTH AMERICA 52 bottles - Canada 33 United States 19

35% UNITED KINGDOM 30 bottles - Scotland 27 Ireland 3

5 % WORLD 4 bottles - Japan 1 South Africa 1 New Zealand 2

@paddockjudge, unless you've got all Bushmills, don't tell the Irish that you lumped them in with the UK! :)

For two reasons, I limit my number of open bottles:

*First, I fear degradation of bottles that are open too long.

*Second, I don't want a bottle to go into "general rotation," as it were, where I hit it so infrequently as to never form a clear mental image of it. I much prefer to drink a given bottle with some dedication over a given time--a few weeks or a couple months--to really get to know it.

So, I typically just have five slots: 1, a non-peater; 2, a half-peater; 3, wildcard, which could be something sherried; 4, the first peater; and 5, the second peater for comparison's sake.

I break my pattern quite often if I just want a certain set of bottles open together. Like recently, I'vw had all my peated Benriachs open in defiance of my scheme. And if I receive a bottle as a gift, I open it. Putting those into strategic storage doesn't feel right.

So here's what I have open now:

*Non-peater: Charbay R5 (distilled Racer 5 IPA)

*Half-peater: Springbank Claret

*Wildcard: nothing

*Peat: Benriach Curiositas, Benriach Solstice, Big Peat Christmas 2011 (the Big Peat being opening just for the Christmas season in defiance of my usual scheme), and Port Charlotte Scottish Barley (the PC being opened because it was a gift of sorts in defiance of my usual scheme).

All told, I have about a third of my total bottles open.

1) Bushmills 21 Year Old, Bulleit 95 Rye, Adelphi's Liddesdale (Bunnahabhain) 21 Years Old. I think the most I've ever had open at any one time is seven or eight bottles.

2) I normally keep three or four bottles open at the same time. I try to make sure I got something that differ in character, both for myself and for any guests that like whisk(e)y. I'm going to open a bottle of Big Peat Christmas and a Laphroaig Quarter Cask when my peat headed relatives come home for Christmas.

3) I've both hurried to finish bottles and drawn them out, it depends on if I think they will degrade fast or keep for a good while. Not really any science to this one, just guessing. Seems to work out well most of the time.

@OlJas, Spot on! Two 21's and a 16 of Bushmills.

I have 30 bottles open. This is after making a conscious decision to reduce the number of open bottles.

The following is boring trivia:

1. 25 were at one time 700 or 750 cc bottles (14 are still in those bottles and 11 decanted into smaller bottles), 5 were 200 cc bottles. In addition, I have a vatting of what's left of 2 50cc minis.

2. 7 are Canadian whiskies (including 2 single malts and 3 Forty Creeks).

3. 2 are bourbons, and 4 are Indian. 17 are Scotches (1 blend)

4. 22 are single malts from 15 separate distilleries -13 Scottish, 1 Canadian, 1 Indian.

5. 11 are cask strength. 11 are at 45% or lower.

In addition I have 10 sample bottles from two different sources, three of which are open.

Whew...looks like I've got some work to do...

At the moment: Hazelburn CV, Glenfiddich 125th Anniversary, Glengoyne Cask Strength Batch 001 and Macallan 18 Year Old Sherry Vintage 1996. I'll crack open the Glen Orrin 30 Year Old by Aldi tomorrow at Christmas lunch.

I tend to keep around 5 bottles open of different varieties or regions: sherried, peated, bourbon, blended, or Islay, Highland, Speyside, Lowland, Japanese, Australian, Indian, etc.

On occasion there will the additional one or two bottles of Cognac, Armagnac, dark rum or bourbon. I like my oak aged spirits.

I have Octomore 06.1 Isle of Skye 12yr. Macgavin's Speyside. Oban Little Bay. Balcones Brimestone. Though there is a good chance most of these will not see out the rest of the week. (:

Open bottle milestone tonight. This evening, after opening a Four Roses Single Barrel, I arrived at 100 open bottles of whisky.

I tend not to have a lot of bottles open at any one time.. My general go to malts are Auchentoshan Threewood, toshan 21, Glenfarclas 15, and currently getting through Glenfiddich snow Phoenix, 15yo and distillers edition.. I do open bottles regular but often send out samples and have friends round do they get emptied quickly.. My buying way outdoes my drinking so maybe I need to open more..

What a difference a year and a half can make. After the "conscious decision to reduce the number of open bottles":

Total open bottles: 53 !

A few factors that have contributed to this include the desire to try stuff (of its own a powerful reason), a desire to try something so I can buy more if I like it (for rare releases), and opening new bottles for tastings (such as the whisky summit).

I would strongly suggest that Connosr is one of the main reasons I have so many open bottles.

In addition, I now have 35 samples about 2/3 of which I have opened or tried before.

For those who want the boring details see below:

1. Scotch - 22 - 19 SM (10 SC), 3 Blend. Total of 4 at or below 45%

2. Irish - 3 - 1 SM (CS), 2 Blends (1 CS)

3. Canadian - 12 - 2 SM, 3 single grain, 7 blends. All 45% or below

4. US - 9 - 8 Bourbon (3 CS - all Bookers), 1 Rye (CS)

5. Indian - 5 - 4 SM (all CS) and 1 Blend (

For some reason my post was cut off - I will try again:

What a difference a year and a half can make. After the "conscious decision to reduce the number of open bottles":

Total open bottles: 53 !

A few factors that have contributed to this include the desire to try stuff (of its own a powerful reason), a desire to try something so I can buy more if I like it (for rare releases), and opening new bottles for tastings (such as the whisky summit).

I would strongly suggest that Connosr is one of the main reasons I have so many open bottles.

In addition, I now have 35 samples about 2/3 of which I have opened or tried before.

For those who want the boring details see below:

1. Scotch - 22 - 19 SM (10 SC), 3 Blend. Total of 4 at or below 45%

2. Irish - 3 - 1 SM (CS), 2 Blends (1 CS)

3. Canadian - 12 - 2 SM, 3 single grain, 7 blends. All 45% or below

4. US - 9 - 8 Bourbon (3 CS - all Bookers), 1 Rye (CS)

5. Indian - 5 - 4 SM (all CS) and 1 Blend (

well, that's twice now... I'll just try posting the second half:

For those who want the boring details see below:

1. Scotch - 22 - 19 SM (10 SC), 3 Blend. Total of 4 at or below 45%

2. Irish - 3 - 1 SM (CS), 2 Blends (1 CS)

3. Canadian - 12 - 2 SM, 3 single grain, 7 blends. All 45% or below

4. US - 9 - 8 Bourbon (3 CS - all Bookers), 1 Rye (CS)

5. Indian - 5 - 4 SM (all CS) and 1 Blend (

Getting frustrated. Last chance - I will post only what comes after Indian...

1. Belgian - 1 - Lambertus has its own category

2. Japanese - 1 - 1 Blend (CS)

It's interesting to see how things have evolved. It looks like the biggest gains have been in the North American category.

21 are now CS and the number 45% or less (18) has diminished as a proportion of my open collection.

My conclusion is I need to stop opening bottles, and that it looks like my exploration of non-Scotch spirits has expanded.

That was entertaining! Maybe there's a word limit...or maybe not @Nozinan

Out of the 46 bottles currently in my cabinet, the 25 are opened. Opened for different reasons and with various remains. I tend to open and "push" good whisky to friends at tasting events (which I strive to organize). Open bottles of less good whiskey are usually ignored or used for casual drams. I don't like the idea of vatting, I'm afraid of ruining the whisky and also I consider that a blenders job. If I get fed up with seeing a bottle sitting in my cabinet I try to hurry to finish it.

@bourbondrinker

Maybe it was just ME being rejected...

Five, six, seven years ago I used to open everything I bought, and I bought hundreds of bottles. Then I observed the results of my open bottle experiment, and realised that quite a few of the bottles would lose something of their best flavours, and that some would go completely off. Decanting salvaged most of those open bottles by providing small air spaces in the smaller bottles, but I still have quite a few bottles which have had 2-3 years of air exposure. So now I have something like 100 open bottles, almost all of them either gassed or decanted.

I like a wide variety in whisk(e)y drinking and what I like best is pairing each unique bottle with the appropriate mood. Four to six open bottles? I keep that in different Ardbegs alone. Sure, I could get by with only 3 or 4 or 5 open bottles, but I like to entertain and to show newcomers the variety which is available. It takes a much bigger and broader collection to do that.

Current count of my open bottles is at 51, and growing. And 3x-4x current count remain unopened. Three factors at work. First, I buy more than I would ever consume. No doubt some hoarder mentality in play. Second, annual getaway weekend usually results in my bringing and sharing of 6-10 new bottles. Theme for last one was international whiskies. Third, I am still expanding my range of bourbons for use in food + bourbon pairings for local charity auctions. Generally five or six different small plate courses, each served with a different complimentary bourbon. While bourbon not my personal favorite, it is by far the most popular among auction bidders. Breakdown of my open bottles: 20 bourbons, 10 Irish, 10 scotch, 3 Japanese, 3 Canadian, 3 Indian, 1 South Africa, 1 French.

@Victor I would very much like to be a guest in your home one day... and of course to return the favour.