Please can anyone advise as to the best way to store unopened bottles of brandy? Conflicting information on the web suggests storing horizontal and vertical. Help!
As a relative ignoramus on liquids stronger than 20% alcohol, I wouldn’t have thought it would make any difference?
I’ve generally heard the “vertical” advice given, with (I think) the following fairly weak rationale:
Spirits, whether complex whiskies or simple vodkas, are high enough in alcohol to be more-or-less impervious to oxygen, so keeping the cork dry isn’t as critical as with wine. Therefore, might as well keep the liquid away from the stopper, to minimise evaporation and save the precious nectar within!
I keep most of my whiskies & other spirits upright. But equally, for convenience of storage, my ‘overflow’ of lesser spirits & liqueurs are horizontally on my spare wine rack!
I guess the one example I have that I know has been stored both ways is a bottle I’ve recently got hold of that used to be in my Granddad’s cupboard. It’s unopened so I can’t vouch for the quality of the remainder, but its ullage isn’t huge (top-shoulder perhaps?). It’s a 1928 Delmain Petit Champagne cognac, and I would guess was given to my Granddad in the mid-1960s, so has probably been stored horizontally & vertically for 40-50 years.
I guess my major thought is this - since spirits don’t improve in bottle, are you likely to keep them for decades? If they’re to be drunk, they’re sufficiently robust that it wouldn’t matter over a 0-5 year time-horizon.
That’s my 2-penneth anyway…!
Tim
How delightfully ambiguous!
It’s right up there with: “To be cellared and forgotten”.
No, no, it’s not meant to be disparaging, I promise.
I avoid spirits not because I scorn them but because I’m sure I do quite enough damage to my liver already.
Thanks to all for the responses - vertical storage it is then.
I rarely drink spirits but on a trip to Cognac last week drank an excellent and delicious brandy which I had to buy. It’s an interesting town to visit - avoid the obvious ‘big names’ (basically huge factories with VERY clever marketing & branding departments)- there are lots of smaller quality distilleries. The only problem is that place reeks of evaporating spirit!