Justerini & Brooks 1977 Bottle

[sideshowbob1971]

Hello everyone. I've been sat on (not literally) a bottle of Justerini & Brooks ports 1977 (which I believe was the first year J&B started doing port under it's own label and on top of that, a fab vintage year). I've been keeping it in the dark, constant temp (and did try some, from a different bottle , same vintage, back in the mid 1990's). I was wondering :

1. Am I keeping it correctly?
2. How long will it keep for?
3. Antiques Roadshow question: Insurance valuation for 1 bottle

Thanks everyone...

[jdaw1]

1. Am I keeping it correctly?

If it is lying down, and if the constant temperature is cool, then excellent.

2. How long will it keep for?

Approximately ages. More than a decade from now.

3. Antiques Roadshow question: Insurance valuation for 1 bottle

Not a lot. Insurance valuation might be £80, but if selling it you would probably get something like £40.

I quote standard advice for would-be vendors not quite you  for your interest.

Standard advice to would-be vendors

Some new members of ThePortForum.com join because they have a bottle, or some bottles, for sale. So we have jointly composed this standard advice, that covers the most frequently-seen situations. Of course, some more specific advice might follow after.

First, hello and welcome. We welcome such visitors, from the likes of whom we have bought bottles and cases in the past.

Second is less good. Your bottles are unlikely to be worth a lot. Selling at auction, through one of the big auction houses, is likely to net you about half the retail price. (Auction prices are less than retail which is why wine merchants buy at auction, and there is the seller’s commission and transport costs.) Selling to a wine merchant is likely to net you about the same, half retail. As a guide, vintage port (rather than LBV, Crusted, or other types), of a good name, from a good year, four or so decades old, of good provenance, might be as much as £100 a bottle. If not all these ducks are in a row, it will be less. So this will not pay for a car or a holiday: sorry.

So our usual advice is not to sell.

If you were given these bottles as a christening present, we advise that you hold them. When you are thirty or forty years old it will give you great pleasure to open these bottles with friends bottles you will have owned since you were a toddler. (Recall Alan Clark on Heseltine: ‟he had to buy all his furniture”. Your friends will have had to buy their own wine; yours came to you as a child.) Selling will net you small money; holding and drinking later can give you great pleasure.

If you are the father of the vendor, a teenager with non-vinous uses for money, then you are probably the best purchaser. Buy, and share with your offspring when they are old enough to regret having sold.

But if, despite all this, you still want to sell, then we might be the best purchaser. Please describe what you have, and post a picture of the bottle or of the unopened case. When did you acquire it, and where has it been stored? And where is it now located: which country (UK? USA? Other), and approximately where within that?

[RAYC]

If it's stored well, you should hopefully be in for a treat.

I used to have a few of these - sadly now drunk. Assuming there was only one Justerini's bottling, the port inside is the same as 1977 Gould Campbell (don't be distracted that the label says "bottled by Smith Woodhouse & Co" in the small print - this used to be the legal entity named as the bottler for Gould Campbell and the cork should state "Gould Campbell" when you pull it out).

Good bottles of 1977 Gould Campbell have the reputation as being amongst the best of the vintage, although unfortunately the port also seems to suffer from being corked more than would be average. They will keep for many, many years yet.

Are you storing it correctly? That sort of depends on what the constant temperature is....constant temp in a hot, dry airing cupboard - you are not storing it properly. Constant temperature in a cool, damp cellar - much better! Has it been stored on its side or standing up?

As to insurance value, if someone wanted to buy a case of 12 bottles that had been kept in professional storage for its whole life, they may have to pay £550-£600 for it (£45-50ish per bottle). If someone wanted to buy a single bottle from a reputable wine merchant, perhaps they may have to pay £60.

As to what you may expect if you tried to sell it, you should not expect to get more than c.£30 if you go through auction or sell to a wine merchant, or you might get lucky on ebay and get a bit more.

[sideshowbob1971]

Thanks everyone...I'm not looking as to value and legitimacy, as I obtained from an heir from the J&B "estate" - received 6 - gave 3 to ex-boss, sank 2 , kept 1 just to how to protect (and have tasted it's worth) ...just happy to know, it can be preserved as not wishing to "dispose of" yet, in whatever way..