Spend time with whiskey drinkers and you will likely hear many thoughts on the tastes of whiskey. Some are quite passionate about their opinions, as I have written about HERE.
One debate that rages on is about the Neck Pour. Is it really a thing? Is the first pour out of a bottle really that much different than the rest of the bottle? Does the whiskey change after you get the whiskey in the neck poured out? What if a bottle doesn't really have a neck?
I'm no scientist or chemical engineer and I don't have any big data to pull from, but the debate is real, and sometimes rather loud. Some people swear that the neck pour is different. Others swear it's not a thing.
From the little bit of research I have done, what I've read, and people i've listened to, chemically there is no change in the whiskey. Once whiskey is bottled, it is a very stable product and takes a long time for any marked change to occur. (If I am wrong in that assessment, someone email me).
Randy Sullivan from Bourbon Real Talk has a video and podcast about this that I found informative and helpful in understanding this so called issue. You can see the video below
Randy does a great job of explaining what's happening chemically with the whiskey. How you can't really pour out just the whiskey in the neck and why you might get a different taste from the first pour to the second, third and so on. It's a video worth watching (if you are into whiskey geekdom like myself).
Bottom line, whiskey is a very stable product. That's why 200+ years ago, farmers started turning their excess corn, rye, etc.. into whiskey. Partly so they didn't lose the crop to spoilage. And, partly so they had something of value which they could trade or barter with. Since whiskey didn't really spoil, it was a great solution.
And, what Randy outlines in his video makes sense to me. I mean how can a bottle from Buffalo Trace, or Four Roses or Old Forester be the same from bottle to bottle year after year and not be affected by the "neck pour malady" if it's really a thing?
I know if I don't like a bourbon one day, I may like it in a week or three at a different time. Could be I was coming down with something, or maybe something I ate earlier is affecting my pallet. And, I have had this happen to me several times. So it makes sense. There are a lot of personal factors that affect how you taste what you taste. So, if you don't like a whiskey when you first try it, let it sit and try it another time.
So is the neck pour really a thing? The debate rages on...
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