Late father's wine

I'm new to this forum and joined to hopefully get some truthful direction and advice.

My father passed away in March and when we were cleaning out his apartment we found several bottles of wine in the wine rack, which was stored in his closet.

Two bottles were very old vintages. One bottle was La Tache Monopole 1957 and the other is Brane-Cantenac 1964. Both bottles were never opened. From what I've been told the La Tache looks to have very minimal evaporation, if any at all. The Brane looks to have evaporated some but I'm not sure how full it is supposed to be once bottled.

After looking at some of the wine auction site some of these have sold for as much as $5000 per bottle. I contacted the auction sites and their experts advised that I would have a difficult time selling these as these bottles were not stored in a climate controlled wine cooler, and also I would be selling only as an individual and not as a wine collector. They advised that I should just open the bottles and enjoy with a good steak.

I looked on eBay and saw where just the empty bottle of La Tache brought $200.

Anyone have any experience with these wines? I have no clue who I should contact to get a straight answer.

Thoughts???

I'll try to post pics but not sue if they will appear.

[Jenise]

Unfortunately, you did get pretty good advice. Let me explain the wines.

The La Tache, whose producer is Domaine Romanee Conti, also commonly referred to as just 'DRC', is a top property of the inarguably most famous and revered producer in Burgundy. 'Monopole' is a term that refers to the fact that DRC owns the La Tache grand-cru vineyard exclusively. Such are the inheritance laws in that region that some vineyards have been divided and subdivided by multiple heirs. Add to the mix another kind of scarcity--they just don't make that much--and prices are stratospheric. The fill is possibly decent for a '57--but not original/"if at all" good as you were told. I see some crowning of the cork/foil, which could indicate that the cork has moved. Moving corks allow oxygen in and wine out, imperceptively so short-term but over a span of 60 years it hastens maturity.

Brane-Cantenac is a good Bordeaux house but not a collector-magnet. Fill's not great, and the importer label's stained. In fact, there are stains on both bottles--leaky ceiling? Leaking bottles? Hard to know.

Though your father did well to store the wines in a rack and keep them in the coolest, darkest place in the house, it remains true that they were passively stored vs. kept at ideal conditions for both temperature and humidity. These wines will have aged faster and will taste different from perfectly stored bottles. And that's why serious buyers like auction houses and collectors won't line up to buy them from you. You may find another individual who would buy something as rare as that La Tache because '57's their birth year or something--but your price would have to be lowered sufficiently to reduce the cost of the gamble. And honestly, I don't know where that would be and or how you'd connect with them.

I wish you well in your quest, though. If there's a good wine store in your area, they may have a local connection for you.

Thanks Jenise. I appreciate your honest reply. I honestly wasn't expecting anything close to what I've seen these bottles sell for. In fact, one of the advisers on winebid stated that that I'd probably be lucky to get between $500-1000 from a collector who is willing to gamble on the quality of the wine. Trick is finding that "collector". Guess I'll try to contact a local liquor store and see if they have any guidance to a local collector.

64 Brane Cantenac - real crap shoot as to whether it would be any good - $100 = a good price. Good bottles still show decently but lots of bottle variation

57 La Tache - has collector value. Good bottles still drink well. Price depends on collector desire - $1000 - 4,000

Best bet? Drink the Brane Cantenac and sell the La Tache, or donate it to a charity auction for a big tax receipt.

[Jenise]

Thanks Jenise. I appreciate your honest reply. I honestly wasn't expecting anything close to what I've seen these bottles sell for. In fact, one of the advisers on winebid stated that that I'd probably be lucky to get between $500-1000 from a collector who is willing to gamble on the quality of the wine. Trick is finding that "collector". Guess I'll try to contact a local liquor store and see if they have any guidance to a local collector.

Thanks, Fred. Winebid, I might add, is pretty reliable; I buy from them myself, and believe me I rely heavily on the storage conditions mentioned on the listing for each wine. Good thing about relying on them to find that willing collector is that collectors go to them vs. the other way around. In turning your wines over to such a site, you let the middle man profit but he also takes all the risk.

My friend Bill's advice is pretty good. Drink the Bordeaux, sell the Burg.

Winebid, I might add, is pretty reliable; I buy from them myself, and believe me I rely heavily on the storage conditions mentioned on the listing for each wine. Good thing about relying on them to find that willing collector is that collectors go to them vs. the other way around. In turning your wines over to such a site, you let the middle man profit but he also takes all the risk.

Have you tried their new "Peloton" service, Jenise?

I think very good advice above.
Auction average on the '64 Brane-Cantenac is $85 all in. Which translates to hammer of about $70, which leaves net of around $60. But those prices are based on good storage and ullage, that Bordeaux looks like midshoulder which generally means B&M houses wouldn't take even as part of a collection. It would probably hammer for less than $50 at winebid.

Hard to judge ullage on Burg bottles, but eyeballing I'd call that 5 cm, better than the Bdx but far from pristine. WMJ has the 57 La Tache at $2345 (about 2 grand hammer), again based on probably better bottles. My wild-a## guess is that would hammer for $1300-1800 on Winebid, which would net you more than a grand. If you're not into wine that's a nice payoff.

So toast your dad with the Bordeaux (temper expectations, but savor your memories of him) and send La Tache to winebid.

I'll also note that you said you found several bottles, 2 of which were old vintages. If other bottles were things like La Tache, they don't need to be old to be valuable!

Thanks Jenise. I appreciate your honest reply. I honestly wasn't expecting anything close to what I've seen these bottles sell for. In fact, one of the advisers on winebid stated that that I'd probably be lucky to get between $500-1000 from a collector who is willing to gamble on the quality of the wine. Trick is finding that "collector". Guess I'll try to contact a local liquor store and see if they have any guidance to a local collector.

Thanks, Fred. Winebid, I might add, is pretty reliable; I buy from them myself, and believe me I rely heavily on the storage conditions mentioned on the listing for each wine. Good thing about relying on them to find that willing collector is that collectors go to them vs. the other way around. In turning your wines over to such a site, you let the middle man profit but he also takes all the risk.

My friend Bill's advice is pretty good. Drink the Bordeaux, sell the Burg.

The issue with me listing the bottles with Winebid is that they will not accept the bottles. I have to be honest when I advise how my father stored the bottles, and when I told them that they stated they couldn't list them. I completely understand, but I thought I could have disclosed the storage in the listing and a potential buy could make an educated decision if they wanted to bid. Sure, I could lie and say they were stored properly for years, but I'm not that type of person. I guess I'll have to try and find someone locally.

I'll take y'all's advice and probably drink the Brane.

Too bad winebid won't take. Know they have a minimum, but thought they might take one expensive bottle.

Where are you? Maybe someone can suggest a local store or a wine group.

Wine Spectator has a commerce forum, though people might not be so eager to do business with someone without history
http://forums.winespectator.com/eve/for ... 7986076161

Too bad winebid won't take. Know they have a minimum, but thought they might take one expensive bottle.

Where are you? Maybe someone can suggest a local store or a wine group.

Wine Spectator has a commerce forum, though people might not be so eager to do business with someone without history
http://forums.winespectator.com/eve/for ... 7986076161

Thanks, Dale. I live in Eads, Tennessee, which is just outside the city limits of Memphis. I retired from the Memphis PD in 1998 and we chose to live outside Memphis.

I see that you are from NY and not too far from Brooklyn. I had family who lived in Brooklyn and I was somewhat raised in Brooklyn for a good par of my youth. We lived in Bay Ridge near 73rd and 3rd. My uncle built scenery for the Metropolitan Oprah House and Broadway. I worked many Broadway shows back then for extra money. Over the years the neighborhood changed and my family moved here. Whenever I tell someone I was partially raised in Brooklyn they just laugh because of my strong Southern accent.

My SIL plays at Met, though only been there since 90s.
I'm afraid I don't know any TN wine shops- good luck!