Whisky Drinking Temperature

I am no expert on this, but I do know you want to watch out for two things. Light and Temperature. Don't store your bottles near sunlight or light in general. Preferably you'll want to have them somewhere dark, cool or quite shady. I keep mine all tucked away in a wooden cabinet. I take it you mean 38'C?. Which is the same heat we get here in the summer (winter now, usually hover around 35-44'C during summer). The best thing for you to do is find the coolest place in your home to store it (at least for the summer) and away from any light.

As for adding ice; Generally speaking, most people prefer drinking whisky neat (especially single malts) but if you like it better that way then go ahead! When it cools down however, do yourself a favor and try it neat, I'm sure you'll generally find the experience much more enriching.

Another thing to consider is having "lighter" whisky's during the hot months (ie. summer) and then bringing out the more complex, thicker robust whisky's for the autumn and winter. But that's just me !

Enjoy :D

@TheMoth First off Welcome to both the wonderful world of whisky and welcome to Connosr! Whereabouts in Aussie are you if you don't mind saying? We've got members in Perth, Queensland, Melbourne, Sydney and Tasmania!

Let's start off on storing. Away from light, away from heat. And that goes for every single spirit, beer and wine that I can think of. Those two things are their enemies. I tell some of my customers when they're buying large amounts of beer for storing, cool and dark. Closets can be great places, cabinets, etc. It doesn't have to be anything too fancy. Although I want something nice and fancy for my collection :D Ideally you also don't want lots of temperature fluctuations, i.e going from 38 to 18 and back and forth again and again as that can damage the spirit as well.

Now to drinking and enjoying. Ideally you drink whisky neat at room temperature to get the maximum aromas and flavors out of the whisky, Water can be added if you so desire, but ideally just a few drops to open up the whisky. Ice will actually destroy flavors and aromas, possibly limiting your enjoyment of the whisky. Most whisky guys I know enjoy their whiskies neat at room temperature in a glencairn style whisky glass. That being said you dont have to drink YOURS that way. You paid for the whisky so drink it however you most enjoy it. My brother as much as it bugs me (and I know he does it half the time since he knows it bugs me :D) loads his whiskies full of ice and cold water hahaha.

Drink your whisky however you like, like I said before, you bought it, you know best how YOU enjoy it.

Now being in Aussieland and enjoying the oh so cold summers I personally find Macallan, Aberlour, Balvenie, Glenmorangie and Glenfarclas a few of my summer distilleries with much lighter and oftentimes fruitier whiskies, however a good Ardbeg Galileo goes down oh so nicely as well as Talisker (I dont care that it's not a summerish whisky :D)

Enjoy the whisky my friend and welcome to the family!!

@TheMoth. Keep in mind that room temperature generally means about 65-68F or 18-20C. You may have to chill your glass in the fridge prior to your pour. What Squidgy says is good practical advice, especially try to avoid putting ice in your whisky. But as he says, you bought it, you can do what you want with it to maximize your enjoyment. Cheers.

I have the exact oposite situation. It's very cold here now. What about warming your whisky? I don't know what normal viewpoint on this is, but I like to warm the glass/dram in my hand a few minutes before I start sipping. From what I've heard that is a recommended way to treat cognac, but I think I saw on YouTube this guy saying you should NOT warm the whisky with your hands, but instead just hold the foot of the glass.

Hi everyone thanks for the feed back. Opened my junk mail today and seen a wine fridge/cabinet that you can set and maintain the temperature between 6-18'C. Thinking this will keep my whisky in the goldilocks range not to hot not to cold.

If you get a fridge, just make sure to keep the bottles upright and not on their side to avoid leakage or evaporation. Only wine "should" be stored on its side. I say "should" because... well, let's not open this can of worms :)

I use a woodstove for heating in the winter and the dining room/living room frequently gets in the 26-28C, especially during the night, so I keep my "collection", if I can call it that, in a spare bedroom in the basement.

Ambient!

Dave Broom offers some great advice on different ways to enjoy different styles of whiskey in the flavour camp section of "The World Atlas of Whiskey". It only takes up 2 pages of the book, although the book as a whole is a wealth of information. I gained an even greater appreciation for Whiskey after reading about the history of the distelleries they come from. If you pick it up, let me know what you think.

ewhiskey

It's -17F (-22C) here as the sun thinks about rising. A few seconds out in that would cloud up your favorite NCF whisky.

@Frank1...in addition to the reasons you stated, the main reason for not storing whisky on its side is that the prolonged cork contact WILL contaminate the whisky. Additionally, the higher abv of whisky (compared to wine) will cause the cork to eventually disintegrate.

Whisky should never be on its side for a prolonged period of time.