I keep my whisky in the coolest cupboard in the house with the bottles still in the boxes which take up a lot of space that could be used for other things. Do I need the boxes?

Are you collecting it or drinking it?

Surely the boxes take up no more space than the bottles.

Anyway – the answer is just to drink it.

As the cupboard is in the dark it shouldn’t affect the contents I would think. Plus you can keep the boxes safe if they’re off the collectable type.

Alcohol is a preservative, that’s how pickling works. An opened bottle of decent whisky will eventually oxidise – it starts to taste a bit like batteries – but that’ll take a couple of years. If this is a problem then you should probably stop referring to bottles in the plural.

Surely the boxes take up no more space than the bottles.

No, that’s not how geometry works, unless you’ve removed the bottles from the boxes and flat-packed them for posterity.

Do I need the boxes?

Pubs and bars don’t keep their whisky in boxes. (No idea about the flash ones, but the ones I go to don’t).

Remind me – how many more bottles can you fit on a shelf if you ditch the box?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_packing_in_a_square

Thanks all
AlisdairMc – I’m drinking it.

scotroutes – it’s surprising how much less space they do take up, enough to move them around without risk of the front bottles falling off when reaching for the back/ to store some beers/ other bottles.

Edit – the boxes aren’t all uniform size and shape which causes the problem I think.

It’s not he ideal storage space just the best I have, so I was wondering if the boxes offered some extra protection.

I have 1-2 from each region Scottish region + a few others at any one time and get through about 10 bottles a year. The longest will be there for about 18 months if I am not too keen on them.

Should I cut this down then? I haven’t noticed any taste problems.

That Wikipedia circle packing this is very clever and all but how the **** is someone supposed to pack the bottles away again after they’ve had a few drinks?

Fractal spiral?

Fibonacci Numbers of Sunflower Seed Spirals

Now, this might complicate things…

It’s not he ideal storage space just the best I have, so I was wondering if the boxes offered some extra protection.

Only if you drop it.

scotroutes – that one would need packing Speyside first

I’d a customer who used to pay for his motorbike repairs with 2 litre coke bottles filled with whatever dram was available from his work. That caused more than a few problems with decanting, labelling and storing. Still, we made the most of it.