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While helping my mother-in-law to move home and downsize to a bungalow, we came across 10 bottles of Dows Port Reserve 1964 in the wine rack in the garage. The wax look label says Bottled in 1972 and had been bought by my father-in-law in Hull, East Yorkshire (England) during the 1970's from a shop called Clifford Dunn - (CD on the price tag) - see photo:



Would the Port in these bottles still be drinkable and what kind of value would they hold?

Thanks
Ian

Hi Ian,

Welcome to

These are interesting old bottles but I have no idea what they are worth given the fact that they have been stored in a garage for so long, which is far from ideal. Whatever that price is I don't think you will be winning the lottery here and it might be a good idea to pop one open and let us know how it tastes.

One of our members from the USA is a 1964 baby and he might be interested in purchasing all or some of these from you. As he will now be asleep, please take this as a note of interest on his behalf and I will send him an email pointing him to this thread.

Derek

Thanks Derek. Nice idea to open one but we'll wait and see what feedback we get first.

Ian

How big are the bottles? As it's hard to tell from the pic.

The largest issue is what DRT says. These have been stored in a garage for decades which is generally really bad for all wine/Port. Having had this particular Port on previous occasions (1980's bottlings of it) I can tell you being in bottle that long has not helped this Port. Still drinkable (from well stored bottles) but far from it's best.

Don't expect to get a lot of money for these.

They have a rarity value, I've never seen one like it, which may help a bit. But not a lot.

Just measured them, and they're about 10.75 inches tall - see pic below:



Any advice on cleaning them up? Some of the wax labels just drop off, and don't want to damage the paper labelling.

Ian

DRT wrote:One of our members from the USA is a 1964 baby and he might be interested in purchasing all or some of these from you. As he will now be asleep, please take this as a note of interest on his behalf and I will send him an email pointing him to this thread.

Thank you, Derek.

I have had the 1964 Dow's Reserve on a couple of occasions and have rated it as high as 91 points, but I'm usually about 3 points higher than others here so consider that a solid 88 rating. My bottles look much different than yours, too.

Since this is a Tawny Port, it should still be drinkable but will likely be faded due to the storage conditions. I agree with others here that you should probably just open one and give it a taste. As far as the value goes, I paid $60 for mine and felt that was a fair price for what was ultimately in the bottle. This being the Port's 50th Anniversary year you might be able to get a little bit more, but the storage conditions will drag that back down. Bottled in 1972 also drags the value down as it means that it was only in wood for 8 years. As Andy said, bottle aging doesn't seem to be friendly for this Port. Personally I would probably take a flyer on only 1 or 2 of these bottles for maybe $30 or $40 each. If they turned out to be good, then I might return for the rest.

Given the height of bottles I assume these are 1/2 bottles (375ml)???


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Don't clean them up.

Where abouts are you?

Glad you said that, I actually think that the external appearance just adds to the intrigue, which is why we've refrained from cleaning them. We're in the city of Hull, East Yorkshire.

Andy Velebil wrote:Given the height of bottles I assume these are 1/2 bottles (375ml)???


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Sorry Andy, the bottles don't have any kind of volume labelling so I can't confirm what volume they hold.

You could weigh them to gain some volume information. Would have to guess the weight of the glass, but might give you some idea.

ianlivo wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:Given the height of bottles I assume these are 1/2 bottles (375ml)???

Sorry Andy, the bottles don't have any kind of volume labelling so I can't confirm what volume they hold.

A normal Port bottle is about 11 1/2" tall. Most .375ml Port bottles are around 9" tall. Given yours has a large tall T-cork* sealing it I suspect these are 375ml bottles. Maybe 500ml at most. That will also affect the price in a negative way.

Weighing them may help in determining a little better.

*You can see the left bottle has a seam where the T-cork meets the actual bottle.

Or just go into the local supermarket and compare the rough volume of the bottles you have with half bottles, full bottles and 500ml bottles on the shelves.

Knowing the volume of the bottle will be crucial to being able to provide you with some guidance as to their value.

Well, we came across 2 empty bottles when clearing the rest of the garage. I filled one with water and measured it using a measuring jug. They hold 675ml to the bottom of the neck (700ml if you include part way up the neck). Is this a standard size?

70cl is an old but once standard size. Slightly surprising that something bottled in the '70s was bottled in 70cl, but by no means impossible.