If You Won a 30-Year-Old Whisky, Would You Crack It Open or Keep It Sealed?

Not every whisky lover has a 30-year-old bottle sitting on the shelf. A whisky like that is, after all, old and fairly pricey. But what if you won such a bottle? And then comes the next question: would you crack it open or keep it sealed? Welcome to a new Ask Away, our weekly Friday feature.

This topic was inspired by the news from Douglas Laing, where you can win whiskies worth over £20,000. It’s a campaign not just for the wealthy, but for everyone.

There’s an astonishing amount of money changing hands on the secondary whisky market. When I have a 30-year-old whisky in front of me—and that really happens only rarely—I think about how it was made and the era it comes from.

I wonder what influences its aroma and flavor, and whether that’s comparable to—or completely different from—the whisky being made at the same distillery today. After that, the bottle simply has to be opened and enjoyed, and I’d do that with friends.

If I were the maker of such a special whisky, I’d find it disrespectful to leave the bottle sealed or to profit off it at auction. So for me, it’s simple: win it, share it, savor it.

That depends on which distillery the bottle is from. A 30-year-old Springbank or Macallan would probably stay closed—but since I couldn’t afford one anyway, it’s thankfully not a realistic dilemma. A lovely 30-year-old single grain, though, I’d open. Those are usually still reasonably priced. And don’t underestimate the flavor—there are some absolute gems that are a joy to drink.

A tricky question, depending on how you look at it. If we’re talking value, the higher it climbs, the less likely I am to open the bottle. If it’s about taste and aroma, then depending on the type of bottle and materials, I think the character can be preserved well enough to tempt curious monkeys like me into opening it anyway.

In short, it really depends on the angle. When push comes to shove, I’ll only know for sure in the moment, but I think I’d most likely open it if I could share it with someone who truly appreciates whisky. Until then, it stays closed, safely in storage.

Open it. It’s simple: before that moment, I didn’t have the bottle—or its supposed ‘value’. How great would it be to just pop it open? And then I’d keep bringing out that same bottle whenever life gives you something worth celebrating.