I picked up a bottle of Nouvelle-Orléans while vacationing in Chicago this past weekend. It's quite a big purchase for me so I don't want to drink it quickly. My question is, once I open the bottle, how long can I expect it to last before losing its quality or character? Ideally I'd like to savor it over time and compare it to other absinthes I plan on buying.

Thanks for the advice.

You don't need to worry...it will outlive you. (Chances are you'll drink it faster than you are planning!)

Hi McZ,

I can't speak to the NO specifically, but it's been my experience (and that of many other folks here) that all the absinthe's I've owned have subtly changed their character over time after having been opened, and have never "lost" anything in terms of quality. My guess is that you'll experience the same maturing of your bottle of NO over time.

It is generally recommended that after you've reached the half-empty point, you'll want to transfer the remainder to a smaller bottle, as the maturing will advance more rapidly in proportion to how much air you have in the bottle.

Enjoy your absinthe!

I appreciate the advice. Thank you.

I also took advantage of the search function and noted that opinions range from simply using a "T cork" to adding marbles to the bottle to displace air. How intriguing.

Also, while searching, I noticed someone mentioned the bottle of NO at Binny's in downtown Chicago. I think I just bought that bottle - ha!

I'd say it'll last about a day and a half, 'round these parts anyway..

I have always found that an open bottle tends to get better, especially the Jade line.

Definitely transfer it to another bottle after you've passed the halfway point as Jay said. The Jade absinthes have a funk to them that is not overwhelming, but can become so if they sit too empty for too long. Other than that, absinthe will actually get better after it's opened. I find that a just-opened absinthe doesn't taste as full-flavoured as it will a few days later.

On the other hand, I have a bottle of PF 1901 that's been open since Sept. '08 and has had only a few doses left in it for about a year that tastes significantly better than the "new" bottle of PF 1901 I opened 6 months ago.

But, yeah--invest in a bag of T-corks and rest easy.

There are a few other exceptions (Montmartre was certainly one of them), but in general, what he said.

mczolton, Thank you for mentioning this:


It's a wonderful tool and it'll save you lots of time.

I got a bottle of NO in 2005 and by 2007 it only had a few doses left, and it was overwhelmed by the stink of armpit. Same thing happened with Blanche de Fougerolles, which started out with no funk whatsoever.

I've still never found the Jade funk you and some others describe. My original release bottle has about 1/3 left and still tastes great. No identifiable funk.

Same here.

I'm not questioning your experience at all, Peridot; I just haven't shared it. It would be an interesting experiment to purchase two bottles (of a Jade or any other brand of absinthe with a reputation for developing a funk over time due to exposure to air) and drink them at approximately the same rate, rebottling one as you go to reduce O2 exposure and leaving the other in the original bottle, and see if there's any appreciable difference in aroma or taste over time.

I have never transferred absinthe to a smaller bottle. I just seal them up and keep them in a cool, dark cabinet. I haven't noticed the flavor deteriorating in any absinthe but improving in almost all of them. I do not have "super taster" skills as some WS members have although I strongly suspect that Peridot does.

I would just put a T-cork in it and hide it in the back of my liquor closet.

None of my open jades have ever had a funk to my nose, and the oldest bottle I have is nearly empty at 6 months...it gets better with age. Think about it...people are still paying big bucks for pre-ban in bottles that
have been evaporating for over 100 years.

My bottles of VS, Eddy, and PF1901, have been opened 8, 6, and 3 months ago, respectively. They all taste smoother and rounder than they did upon opening. I have held out on opening my NO until God knows when.

Nah, it's just something that some people taste/smell and others don't. But enough people do that it's worth the warning. Anything that has funk will usually get more funky, not less, with age if the level is low enough. Other off flavours or textures will usually round out but funk just gets worse. The Jade NO I talked about got rounder, smoother, and more harmoniously balanced, but the funk was just so choking that it sadly didn't matter.

One other issue to consider is a good, tight seal. One of my favourite absinthes ever was Matter Prototype 30, which was the prototype of Duplais Balance. I kept my last two glasses worth for years and one day I had a taste and noticed it had gotten a little flat. Some of the alcohol was evaporating out of the bottle, which I thought was well-sealed. So I moved it to a sample bottle. It's not as good as it would have been had that not happened but I saved it before it was destroyed.

I have learned that some liquors don't age well, from what the board is saying the Jade should be alright. However I would invest in the vacuwine stuff if that is the same thing as a t cork.

"Vacu-Wine" (and similar products) remove the air from the bottle, allowing you to reseal it with little or no O2 in contact with the booze. A T-cork is just a cork (with a plastic cap) that replaces the original, leaving O2 in the bottle.

I have a tendency to drink up to half of the first bottle of every new brand I acquire (not all at once ), then seal it back up and stash it away in my cabinet. Kind of like a liquid time capsule.

I am probably the worst offender of them all, as I hoard all sorts of bottles of varying degrees of fullness, never wanting to finish them until I can hold out no longer. It suits my hoarding nature quite well.

Thank you all for the wonderful advice. I appreciate it!

You don't want your absinthe in a vacuum. It gets better with air and time. There's nothing that dies or falls apart in absinthe like there is with whisky. When absinthe gets worse with age it's because the absinthe was already flawed and that flaw was brought to the fore, not because it degraded. This is of course assuming that you don't allow the alcohol to evaporate out of the bottle, which will utterly destroy an absinthe.

T corks work perfect...good absinthe only gets better with age..

I wouldn't know anything about that.

Ditto.

Tritto.

I've had a couple that degraded over time, including one L'Artisanale, and all my opened bottles are stored in the same place, in a corner, no direct sun, that's the darkest place of my living room in fact.

Going back to the Jades, I've had a 2006 unopened bottle of VS stored in my cellar (a proper one in the basement) that turned totally wrong, almost undrinkable, a friend of mine drunk a glass with me and thought the same, I really don't know what the hell happened, I was very very frustrated as it was a special gift Ted had offered me back in 2006.

Do you think that there might have been an issue with them being airtight?

My bottle of P30 was completely sealed but it evaporated off enough alcohol to slightly damage it. I caught it before it was destroyed, but it sure isn't the same.

Marc, the bottle of L'Artisanale that I used to have had a tiny puncture on the side of the cap, just above the perforations of the cap, when it arrived. Is it possible yours had a very tiny one as well?

it doesn't change anything mine was still sealed the metal cap are more air tight than the cork when they are new

Peridot & Ryan : I don't know, I haven't paid so much attention to the bottles before opening.