How to sell an old bottle of wine?

[Willwors]

A question on behalf of my dad who has discovered an old bottle of 1953 Chateau Latour in his attic!

Unfortunately it looks like the label has been lost in a house move but the bottle can be identified by the imprint on top of the foil / cork which clearly shows what's in there.

So questions are:

1) Is an old and otherwise valuable bottle of wine worth anything without its label, even if it can be identified?
2) If he wanted to flog it, what's the best way to do so?

I'm sure the obvious answer to both of the above is to drink it...!

Thanks

Will

[Mobile Chicane]

Unfortunately it's worth nothing without proof of temperature-controlled storage - ie. in a merchant's cellar.

The attic has to be one of the worst places to store wine as it will be exposed to extreme heat and cold. Neither of these are good for wine.

My guess is that it will taste of boiled raisins.

[Bezerk]

As above. Not worth anything now and almost certainly spoiled.
Open it and have a taste is my suggestion.
Followed by pouring the rest of the bottle down the sink.

[truck71]

I naively bought a dozen bottles of wine at my local antiques auction, they were French circa late 70's/ early 80's. I had no idea about storage etc- about a third were drinkable and very nice, the rest were either corked or ste.

[Willwors]

Attic a slight red herring. It's a ground floor storage room/cupboard. Dark. No windows.

Definitely wouldn't have been subject to the temperature fluctuations at the top of the house!

Make a difference at all?

[prand]

Willwors said:

Attic a slight red herring. It's a ground floor storage room/cupboard. Dark. No windows.

Definitely wouldn't have been subject to the temperature fluctuations at the top of the house!

Make a difference at all?

Not really, without any solid provenance of decent storage, you'd only really sell this for curiosity or ornamental value, so consequently get even less without a label.

I'd open it up and see what its like, but have no great expectations.

What is the condition of the cork (shrunken, swollen with mould in the lead capsule, signs of any leakage?) and has much of the wine in the bottle evaporated? If the cork is well intact and not too much of the original wine has gone it may not be in too bad shape.

However it's practically worthless.

I've tasted some very old wine that has been stored poorly, and it generally tastes very thin and dusty, but sometimes there's a tantalising hint of complexity and flavour. When you get a taste of a 50 yr old claret that's been cellared correctly, you then really understand what all the fuss is all about!

[PoleDriver]

It's probably well past its 'best before' date!

[BoRED S2upid]

Willwors said:

Attic a slight red herring. It's a ground floor storage room/cupboard. Dark. No windows.

Definitely wouldn't have been subject to the temperature fluctuations at the top of the house!

Make a difference at all?

Crack it open and find out. Let us know what it tastes like.

[BoRED S2upid]

Willwors said:

Attic a slight red herring. It's a ground floor storage room/cupboard. Dark. No windows.

Definitely wouldn't have been subject to the temperature fluctuations at the top of the house!

Make a difference at all?

Crack it open and find out. Let us know what it tastes like.

[BoRED S2upid]

Willwors said:

Attic a slight red herring. It's a ground floor storage room/cupboard. Dark. No windows.

Definitely wouldn't have been subject to the temperature fluctuations at the top of the house!

Make a difference at all?

Crack it open and find out. Let us know what it tastes like.

[BoRED S2upid]

Willwors said:

Attic a slight red herring. It's a ground floor storage room/cupboard. Dark. No windows.

Definitely wouldn't have been subject to the temperature fluctuations at the top of the house!

Make a difference at all?

Crack it open and find out. Let us know what it tastes like.

[PoleDriver]

I think he only has one bottle!

[Hoofy]

PoleDriver said:

I think he only has one bottle!

[Willwors]

That's settled then. It's all there and the cork looks in good shape - I'll persuade him to crack it open!

[matchmaker]

A work colleague recently gave me a bottle of white wine his wife won last year at a Christmas raffle. They only drink red.

It was a bottle of Black Tower. Wine which I wouldn't drink under any circumstances. Especially as it was 2002 vintage...