Ok, hard to believe, but true:

Our old cleaning girl, Julir, got a call to go clean house for a
little old lady. Julie goes there and finds that the lady hasnt
thrown out anything since 1952. Anything.

It's now two years later, and Julie's has gotten about half the junk
out of the house. Space has been cleared so it's now possible to walk
into the wine cellar by carefully dodging around the piles of stuff
still left to sort thru.

Now this is not a distinguished wine cellar-- just a cool and dry
room. The place is too grungy with 52 yrs of dust to do much
exploring, but a quick glance shows about a dozen to two dozen bottles
of good-name scotches, whiskies, and wines. All have been stored
upright, so I assume there may be some problem with dried-up corks,
from what I've heard.

Now the problem: I don't know anything about selling the stuff. Is
it worth the trouble to get the stuff out of there, negotiate a price,
clean up the bottles, market them somehow, refund buyers that receive
vinegar, etc.. ?

Any ideas appreciated.

(sorry if this is a FAQ question)

Regards,

George

Scotch and whisky don't improve (or decline) once bottled. These are worth
exactly what they would be new, though you'd get less than a retail store (why
would anyone pay an individual as much, and labels are likely unsightly).

I personally don't know any wine collector (and I know a lot!) who would buy a
bottle that had been sitting upright in a dry room for 50 years. Sorry.

Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

Scotch and whisky don't improve (or decline) once bottled. These are worth
exactly what they would be new, though you'd get less than a retail store (why
would anyone pay an individual as much, and labels are likely unsightly).

I personally don't know any wine collector (and I know a lot!) who would buy a
bottle that had been sitting upright in a dry room for 50 years. Sorry.

Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

"Dale Williams" > wrote in message
...
> Scotch and whisky don't improve (or decline) once bottled. These are worth
> exactly what they would be new, though you'd get less than a retail store
(why
> would anyone pay an individual as much, and labels are likely unsightly).
>
> I personally don't know any wine collector (and I know a lot!) who would
buy a
> bottle that had been sitting upright in a dry room for 50 years. Sorry.
>

....all of the above is true but please do not ignore the human element
in this whole question: people collect things, and some very weird
things are quite valuable to the right person. Very old bottles of
wine have auctioned off at immoderate prices to wine collectors
(that is, collectors of old wine bottles, not of the wine itself) so you
probably would be well advised to dig the stuff out, figure what it
is and list it somewhere. You might start here with the wines or
take a look at eBay to see what other similar things are floating
around the market. As Dale noted, the spirits don't deteriorate so
there might be some value there, and some things (a 50 year old
Cognac bottling, perhaps) might just be very interesting. What a
wonderful way you have of passing a few days and learning about
something new. Good luck.

pavane

"pavane" > skrev i melding
...
>
> .... As Dale noted, the spirits don't deteriorate so
> there might be some value there, and some things (a 50 year old
> Cognac bottling, perhaps) might just be very interesting.
Fwiw, I think I've heard that a 3-star cognac of 50-70 years ago was the
equivalent of a V.S.O.P. or even a Napoleon today.
Marketing, of course - people go for what is perceived as a great buy, and
buy names and/or designations. You got problems selling your 3-star brandy?
Put two more on the label, and increase the price Wow, sales take off!
So, that odd bottle of 50 years ago might even be very good! (Or very poor,
of course :-)
Anders

"pavane" > skrev i melding
...
>
> .... As Dale noted, the spirits don't deteriorate so
> there might be some value there, and some things (a 50 year old
> Cognac bottling, perhaps) might just be very interesting.
Fwiw, I think I've heard that a 3-star cognac of 50-70 years ago was the
equivalent of a V.S.O.P. or even a Napoleon today.
Marketing, of course - people go for what is perceived as a great buy, and
buy names and/or designations. You got problems selling your 3-star brandy?
Put two more on the label, and increase the price Wow, sales take off!
So, that odd bottle of 50 years ago might even be very good! (Or very poor,
of course :-)
Anders

"Anders Tørneskog" > wrote in message
...
>
> "pavane" > skrev i melding
> ...
> >
> > .... As Dale noted, the spirits don't deteriorate so
> > there might be some value there, and some things (a 50 year old
> > Cognac bottling, perhaps) might just be very interesting.
> Fwiw, I think I've heard that a 3-star cognac of 50-70 years ago was the
> equivalent of a V.S.O.P. or even a Napoleon today.
> Marketing, of course - people go for what is perceived as a great buy, and
> buy names and/or designations. You got problems selling your 3-star
brandy?
> Put two more on the label, and increase the price Wow, sales take off!
> So, that odd bottle of 50 years ago might even be very good! (Or very
poor,
> of course :-)
> Anders
>

Assuming that the bottle is in decent condition, probably "very good" is
the answer. I have done but two Cognac comparisons, a 1960's Courvoisier
VSOP against the 1990 version and a Martel Cordon Bleu from the early
1970s against a 1996-or-so release. In both cases there was a remarkable
quality difference in favor of the older bottling. In fact the two brandies
were
served blind in the Courvoisier example and we guessed that we had an XO
against a VS. I am not sure that the problem is in putting more stars on
the
labels as in putting lesser quality in the bottles regardless of what they
claim
to be.

pavane

"Anders Tørneskog" > wrote in message
...
>
> "pavane" > skrev i melding
> ...
> >
> > .... As Dale noted, the spirits don't deteriorate so
> > there might be some value there, and some things (a 50 year old
> > Cognac bottling, perhaps) might just be very interesting.
> Fwiw, I think I've heard that a 3-star cognac of 50-70 years ago was the
> equivalent of a V.S.O.P. or even a Napoleon today.
> Marketing, of course - people go for what is perceived as a great buy, and
> buy names and/or designations. You got problems selling your 3-star
brandy?
> Put two more on the label, and increase the price Wow, sales take off!
> So, that odd bottle of 50 years ago might even be very good! (Or very
poor,
> of course :-)
> Anders
>

Assuming that the bottle is in decent condition, probably "very good" is
the answer. I have done but two Cognac comparisons, a 1960's Courvoisier
VSOP against the 1990 version and a Martel Cordon Bleu from the early
1970s against a 1996-or-so release. In both cases there was a remarkable
quality difference in favor of the older bottling. In fact the two brandies
were
served blind in the Courvoisier example and we guessed that we had an XO
against a VS. I am not sure that the problem is in putting more stars on
the
labels as in putting lesser quality in the bottles regardless of what they
claim
to be.

pavane