Mystery bottle

[Chris Lane]

In the 1970's I was working and living in a building which I believe was a large private town-house in Georgian times. While cleaning out a vellar to make dark-room I found an old wine-cellar behind a panel off the stairs. Inside were shelves lined with straw and having ceramic labels hanging from chains. I told the owners adn they said throw it all out - the reason for this was the bottles in there were all empty. They had not been drunk - they still had corks and foils on the champagne - the contents had evaporated. All paper labels on bottles had disappeared without trace. However, there were a couple of bottles - missing their labels and with the wax cap disintegrated - that still had liquid.
These anonymous bottles were dark and had seams down the side to show they had been made in a mould. And they had port in them.
It tasted incredible.
The questions are these:
How long for champagne and paper labels to evaporate?
Is there any market for the last full, unopened bottle of port?
I undrstand there is no paperwork to support any of this and I could be making it all up.
But I'm not. Any thoughts?

[Glenn E.]

How long for champagne and paper labels to evaporate?

Practically speaking, never. A well stored bottle of Port would not completely evaporate as you have described in less than several hundred years. Champagne should be no different. A paper label stored behind a wall in a cellar would also require hundreds of years to disintegrate unless the walled-off area was relatively humid.

Also, Port as we know it did not come into being until the mid 1700s and even then it was considerably different than what we call Port today. Today's sweet Port only dates back into the 1800s.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[PopulusTremula]

Perhaps the port sages on this forum can unravel the mystery if you were to provide them with some pictures.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Contents of sealed bottles evaporating is really odd - you would never expect this to happen unless the corks had dried out and fallen in to the bottles, allowing the liquid in the bottles to just pour itself onto the floor. Whatever the reason, it does not promise well for the other bottles in the same store.

On the other hand, paper labels can disintegrate in a humid environment in just a couple of dozen years or less.

A picture or two of the bottle would certainly help, as would the information that led you to conclude that it was port in the bottle rather than anything else - such as madeira. Pictures of the cork from the bottle you drank would also be useful.

Two part moulded bottles are a relatively recent production method, which means that the bottle is not that old. It is certainly not Georgian. There is a market for such bottles through regional or London auction houses, but it would likely not yield much more than £20-30 after expenses.

And since the bottle has been in your posession since the 1970s, you should probably also say a little about the way in which you have stored it for the last 35-40 years.

Alex