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Chuck, do not worry about it any more, send it to me, I will fully investigate it for you.

loose proton wrote:Rather than wax, try parafilm.

I checked parafilm.com and it looks like they offer 3
types - Floral, Nursery, & Medical.
Is the medical variety the one you use? Their website
has a minimum order which is probably more than an
individual would need so I checked ebay. Is the item
in auction 200338806273 what you recommend?

from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parafilm

and yes, your ebay item is what I use, the 4" wide. it also comes in 2" wide. I prefer 4" because I cut it off and then have 4" to wrap around larger mouth stuff. Or, I can cut 4" in half to 2" if just wrapping a cheap tequila. I usually just wrap cork tops -- twists tops seal themselves just fine for long term.

Also, check out the seal/top for 1800 tequila, that type seal also gets used on some high $$ products.

Does anyone know what this bottle actually sold for?

You should ask dumpbucket, he is the one that purchased it.

Emerald you've been snitched off so what's the story on the bottle? Just bunkering this away until the end of time or are you really going to pop that puppy open and try it?

p_elliott wrote:Emerald you've been snitched off so what's the story on the bottle? Just bunkering this away until the end of time or are you really going to pop that puppy open and try it?

I have been pondering that question. The particles at the bottom of the bottle concern me.

Fortunately it is not the dark black/brown particles that scream cork rot, but there is a significant amount of white crystalline type particles.

I had not seen that before, but once I got the bottle home, I dug through my bunker to see if I could find it in any other bottle.

... And I did. In one bottle, the 8 year VOF I have from the same bottling year (1968). There is a fraction of the similar particles compared to the VVOF (1 10th of the particles).

I plan on tasting the VOF this weekend with a focus on the particles, based on that tasting, I will determine in the long run whether I open it or not.

To answer Lynn's question, I took a $350 hit for this collectors piece. I am not a big collector, but this is one of the rarest bottles with the greatest history.

I am finding is hard to convince myself to open a $350 collectors piece for drinking when there is a good chance it is corked or tainted.... never know... In truth I wish it was clear with no particles. I would have paid more to know I had good juice.

I don't know if this is kosher or not but can you use a syringe and poke though the cork and draw a sample to see if it's tainted or not. All the while not breaking the seal.

Just make sure you get all of your heroin out of the syringe first.

p_elliott wrote:I don't know if this is kosher or not but can you use a syringe and poke though the cork and draw a sample to see if it's tainted or not. All the while not breaking the seal.

This bad in so many ways.

First its just not cool to do.
Second you have to puncture through the plastic cork cap (drill)
Third, odds are with an old cork you will fracture and or separate the cork from the lid and push it into the bottle
Forth you are creating a leak path for evaporation, contamination, etc

Not a good idea for those and probably other reasons.

cowdery wrote:Just make sure you get all of your heroin out of the syringe first.

Just wrong )

I forgot about about the plastic cap I had read some place of them doing this with old wines.

It is what they do to test old scotches and cognacs, that can sell for thousands of dollars a bottle, for authenticity.

p_elliott wrote:I don't know if this is kosher or not but can you use a syringe and poke though the cork and draw a sample to see if it's tainted or not. All the while not breaking the seal.

This is exactly what "Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte & Mackay,
the company that now owns the Mackinlay label, would like to be able to
taste the bottles of [Shackleton's Whisky]."

See Unearthing Shackleton's Whisky for info on these long lost bottles.
More story & images here.