So I decided on an experiment. On the 7th of March 2014 I took delivery of 12 bottles of Vesuvio 2011 and decanted them into my three non-ornament empty Tappit Hens (2 Warre and 1 Graham). Of course, I cleaned the Tappit Hens very carefully (hot water and sodium metabisulphite and then lots more hot water before drying in an oven) and demijohn corks (boiled to make them soft and to hopefully sterilise them). I stood the filled Tappit Hens upright for a week before laying them down (I learned from the Niepoort 1997 story) for another week to make sure the corks were sound. Then I waxed them with several layers of red bottle wax to properly protect the corks, the final layer of wax being stamped "Vesuvio 2011". I'm currently working on labels, including a back label that will more or less repeat what I have said here so that if ever anyone comes across one of these (which will only happen if I die unexpectedly soon) then they will be clear I filled these bottles and it was not done by Quinta do Vesuvio Lda.
And if anyone is interested, the bottles which were opened and used to fill the three Tappit Hens were 10256 (part only used), 10516, 10661, 10986, 11090, 11100, 11101, 11103 and 11134. The back labels for the Tappit Hens will state which bottles went into which Tappit Hen.
This is what a Tappit Hen of Vesuvio 2011 looks like:
![Image](http://www.jdawiseman.com/2014/20140328_ahb_vesuvio_tappit_hen_1.png)
![Image](http://www.jdawiseman.com/2014/20140328_ahb_vesuvio_tappit_hen_2.png)