Basket of Cheer, 1974.

What does one do with unopened bottles of liquor from circa 1974?

Back then, I won a Basket of Cheer that contained a grouping of hard whiskey. Recently, I dumped the contents of any bottle that had been opened but never finished.

I still have a number of unopened bottles that I really don't ever see being used, but I hate to toss them before ascertaining their "value".

So from the late 70's, I have individual bottles of BOLS Peppermint Schnapps, BOLS Crème De Menthe, Ron Rico Puerto Rican Rum, and scotch by Dewar's White Label, Ballantine's, and J&B. I also have an unopened bottle of Crown Royal Canadian Whiskey from a later period.

So, dump or save?

 

Talk about vintage drinks. Careful if you drop it, they may eat through your floor.

 

Peppermint Schnapps is the terrific to football games: You don't have to mix it with anything, just slug it down and you forget how boring football can get.

 

As long as you don't see things floating in it, it should be fine.
A bottle of Cabernet that my BIL gave me at Easter, on the other hand....

 

1974? I think it's safe to assume that the cocaine is no longer safe to ingest. Also, I wouldn't listen to that disco 8-track.

Actually, I was interested enough to do a little searching. What I discovered is that the aging process is only that which takes place in the whiskey barrel or other such container. Once it's bottled, no further aging takes place. Thus, a bottle aged for a year in 2006 will have the same potency as a bottle aged for a year in 1973.

As for the rest of it, it's my understanding that as long as the seal is tight, it should be fine to drink. So I'd enjoy it.

 

They're all just as good as when you got them, which for the Royal Crown is very good. I can't speak too highly of the rest.

 

Hey, that's when I was born!

Wonder if there's any collectable value to them?

 

I was about to say, that liquor is older than me.

I recently helped my grandparents clean out their "liquor cabinet" - in quotes because as Southern Baptists, drinking is not encouraged yet they swear they got all the alcohol from parties and such - and I discovered bottles from the 1960s. Most of them had a foul stench when we poured it down the drain. I'm not so sure I'd drink something from '74 based on my experience. That's just me.