Any old port in a storm

[10Anos]

Today, just out of the blue, I was thinking about a Columbo-episode featuring Donald Pleasance which I saw once, maybe twice, when I was a teenager (many years ago). In that episode Pleasance played a wine connoisseur who murdered his half-brother (plot summary here). Even though it's the only epsiode of Columbo that I remember after all those years, I never knew the name of this episode, until today. A quick search on the internet revealed it: "Any Old Port in a Storm". I admit to being somewhat suprised and amused at discovering this (ambiguous) title... The only epsiode that really stuck with me now happens to be my favourite kind of wine (old port)...

[DRT]

Was that the Columbo episode where the first guy you see turns out to be the murderer?

[Overtired and emotional]

I think it is one of those episodes in which you sympathise with the murderer rather than the victim who clearly had it coming.

[10Anos]

I don't remember the episode as a whole, just some specific details:
- the actor Donald Pleasance and his way of speech;
- wine storage (cellar??) with turned-off climate control in very hot weather to make sure tied-up half-brother dies during the weekend;
- spoiling all the wine in the storage in the process;
- character played by Pleasance (Adrian Carsini) chucking over a cliff all the spoiled bottles;
- decanting of a bottle of wine (port?);
- holding a wine glass at the base with thumb and index finger on top and middle finger underneath the base

It's indeed one of those episodes in which you sympathise with the murderer. Columbo seems to somehow sympathise a bit too, at the end of the episode he drives Carsini to the police station in his own car rather than have him taken away by a police officer...