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Thanks -
They have come from a wine cellar that was actually in the basement of a stone outbuilding on the Estate and that had interior racking. While always cool, never freezing and very dry, there is dusty and almost a "dry" mildewy type speckling of some of the older labels on some of the prohibition era wines, brandy, scotch, cognac and other spirits. There was one bottle of red wine that was over 100 years old, but it had sediment and the cork had pushed up (from inside) just the tiniest bit, but enough for me to know it was compromised and likely spoiled. The Champagne - as it was put in the cellar much later, (1973,1975 and the Bollinger is 1977) seems to be perfect. I have one bottle of Remy Martin that was wrapped in cellophane - which had dried out over time, but when I took the cellophane off, it had kept the bottle pristine, but I cannot find any place where there is a date on it. Most of the alcohol from the early 1920's and 30's is no good, but the bottles are very interesting as are the labels, and some of the tops have "corks" made of glass. There are a lot of hand written labels, a few Louis Sherry Importer stickers with hand numbered and also with inventory ID #'s apparently part of the requirements to be compliant with the 1918 government act relating to importing, handling, selling and using alcohol. Just an interesting history lesson. These all came from an Estate in Greenwich CT and were given to my husband as an "inheritance" or gift. My husband worked for the owner of the Estate for 30 years. The family owned the New York Sun newspaper, and in their hey day the family was famous and well connected socially and politically, living a upper society lifestyle, and these items came from their family wine cellar, which was located in an outbuilding. The man he worked for was the son of the Times Editor/Owner (who bought it from the Estate of Frank A. Munsey, who he originally worked for as a bookkeeper. The father left the paper and et al to his son, Tom Dewart Jr., who died at 90 in 2001. He also has some bottle openers from the time - monstrosities that weigh about 25 pounds and clamp onto a bar or surface for removing the wine corks, etc. Seem to be made of some silver and a lit of either steel or nickel or other light colored but extremely heavy metal The Dom Perignon is the most recent (youngest)of the wine cellar stored and aged items and I wasn't even sure if it was drinkable, etc.
Thank you for the info and response - I am just beginning the research for the value and to determine what we can do with all these things. We have had them for over 8 years, and it seems time to address what should be done with all of these items.
Karen (PS - We don't really drink, so any "fabulous" vintage or special year/grap, whatever would be lost on us!)
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