Ageing in the bottle does nothing for it. Ageing has to occur in the wooden cask. It's the chemical interaction between the alcohol and the charred wood that causes the taste to change. Once in the bottle no further changes take place. If it was 11 years old when bottled, it should still taste like 11-year old Scotch (or worse) when opened even if opened 30-40 years later.
I don't know if I could call it "worse". I can only glad I had no matches around. It really didn't have a whiskey taste, more of a PGA taste.
"Once in the bottle no further changes take place. If it was 11 years old when bottled, it should still taste like 11-year old Scotch (or worse) when opened even if opened 30-40 years later."
I have read claims by knowledgables that even an unopened bottle of cork-top scotch will slowly oxidize over maybe a decade...once it is opened and some liquid volume removed this picks up quite a bit.