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does tequila spoil if you leave it in a liquor cabinet too long? does it get better with age?

Public Comments

  1. There will be nothing better about it five years from now, but also nothing worse. It is good for a long time.
  2. Spirits do not improve once Bottled... Aging is finished in barrel. Neither do they go bad...
  3. it doesnt spoil and it also doesn't get better with age
  4. no it does not spoil....does not need to be refrigerated, you do though need to keep the lid twisted on tightly to prevent evaporation....
  5. How long are you talking about? Any liquor will deteriorate over time. Many tequilas are aged, but it is done under controlled conditions. Those conditions do not include being in an opened bottle in a liquor cabinet. So, no - once you get the bottle home and open it, it will not improve.
  6. No to both questions! It might get better with age under different circumstances like still in barrel fermenting, but not in your home in a bottle!
  7. Providing the bottle is capped tightly there will be no change in the Tequila over time. Once it has been removed from the oak cask and bottle it ceases to mature and improve.
  8. If the bottle is unopened it will not change over time. If the bottle has been opened, and especially if it is less than half empty, the flavors will start to oxidize. This is only important though if this is a fine, aged tequila and you're drinking it for the flavor rather than the alcohol content. If it's Cuervo Gold, you won't detect much difference.
  9. I don't think it will spoil. The taste may change, but the alcohol in it should keep anything bad from growing in it. Contrary to popular belief, liquors do not "age" in the bottle like wines do. They only age in the barrel.
  10. Provided the bottle is kept air tight it will not go bad. If exposed the air, it will change the flavor dramatically. Once bottled, liquors do not age.
  11. 1. Yes. 2. No. Most high quality Tequilas should be consumed within about 18 months after they are opened. After that the delicate flavor exposed to oxygen will noticeably deteriorate. This really only matters for Tequilas you intend to drink straight up. In a cheap Tequila used as a mixer you won't notice the difference. Most other liquors and liqueurs will keep much longer than Tequila once opened. It's not that they don't deteriorate, it's just far less noticeable. You must however keep resealing them tightly to keep the alcohol from escaping. As for aging: Aging refers to a process by which the alcohol extracts flavors from the wood barrels in which they are aged, and is not to be confused with cellaring which is the controlled storage of wine in the bottle. Unlike wine unopened bottles of most hard liquors neither spoil or get better once they are bottled, just as long as the seal isn't compromised. A 50 year old bottle of cheap scotch is still cheap scotch. A 50 year old bottle of cheap Tequila would at best be still a cheap Tequila and at worst? Who knows? I don't know if anyone ever intentionally has done that experiment.
  12. I had to research this, so let me pass on my wisdom. There are two different types of alcohol. Those that have a live agent in them (wine, beer, etc.) and those that don't. These have been distilled, and no longer age. Let me repeat that, once its been through the still, it doesn't age anymore. If you buy a bottle of 5yo scotch, and let it sit for another 5yo, you don't have a bottle of 10yo scotch. (it went through the still before you bought it.) What you have is a five year old bottle of 5yo scotch. So now that we have that out of the way, the answers are no, and no. It doesn't spoil. It won't get better with age, but could get "worse." I say "worse" not because it will go bad and kill you/make you go blind, but because the flavor could change. Both heat and light will change the flavor of the liquor, for the worse. I put both a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of tequila in a non temperature controlled dark room for a little over a year. The tequila tasted fine to me, but the whiskey didn't taste so hot...
  13. Spirits don't go off, there full of a preservative called alcohol.