An Unknown Wine

[Alex Bridgeman]

A few months ago I was rooting around in the cellar of an old house in Cornwall as a favour to a local auction house who had been commissioned to carry out a house clearance exercise following the death of the lady owner. There were various bottles in the cellar, identifiable by bin labels, with vintage dates running from the early 20th century through to the early fifties. In total, there were about 400 bottles, most were claret (none were port) and the quality I described as "good second division" meaning that there were no first growths in there but plenty of second and third growths.

But in the corner of the cellar were two bottles lying in a pile of dirt and with no means of identifying them at all. All we could see was that they were identical, claret bottles and with seals saying nothing more than "Skinner & Rook, Nottingham". As far as my research can tell me, Skinner & Rook disappeared before the second world war.

Deeming the bottles to be unsellable since they could not be identified, we agreed to take one each. I opened mine tonight.

No branding on the cork, so I have not been able to identify the wine. The bottle was moulded as a single piece, with a very deep and pronounced punt, the surface quality of the glass being covered in striations and a long crease in the bottom part of the bottle. Judging from the bottle, I would estimate that this was probably a vintage from the early twentieth century.

The wine decanted cleanly off a lot of heavy sediment. It was a lovely deep orange colour and had a rich nose of mature claret, that lovely combination of tangerines and roast beef. In the mouth, this was delicate but full of flavour. The fruit was dominant but there were still tannins in the wine giving structure. The flavours were sweet and there was lovely development and complexity in the mid-palate, but also enough tannin to make me think that this would have been a brutal wine in its youth. Slightly dry on the aftertaste, but long and very flavoursome. 94/100.

I would love to know what this wine was, but probably never will. It is delicious and quite amazing. It is old, very old, but is still full of life and shows no sign of fading. A cellarful of these wines would be just so wonderful to have.

[Alex Bridgeman]

I took some pictures of the old bottle.

Note that the bowl on which the bottle is standing, is flat - the base of the bottle was not, so the whole bottle leant to one side when stood upright.

[Alex Bridgeman]

A picture of the whole bottle, clearly showing the imperfections in the glass. Note that the bottle was moulded as a single piece - I could not find a seam anywhere on the bottle.

[Alex Bridgeman]

A close up of the neck, showing all the striations from uneven cooling of the moulded bottle.

[Alex Bridgeman]

And a close up of the bottom part of the bottle (what is the technical term for the part of the bottle between the neck and the base?), showing some major flaws and creases in the moulding.

[Alex Bridgeman]

And this bottle had the deepest punt I have ever seen. It was the depth of my index finger and was not your traditional simple indentation in the base of the bottle - but had an inverted punt where the normal, smooth curve at the top of the punt would have been.

So - any ideas as to the age of the bottle?

[smisse]

In general there are 3 types of bottles of which your's seems to be the "fond pique". (see picture)
The more expensive wines used to be kept in fond pique's, as it was easier to see the deposits and therefore the need of decanting.
I would assume yours was definitely from the early 20's yet maybe even older. Was there no sign at all of a label?
These types of unknown bottles are fascinating and definitaly if they appear to be still of good quality. Unfortunately I usually find vinegar in them

wijnfles.jpg (32.27 KiB) Viewed 4405 times

[Alex Bridgeman]

This bottle certainly seems to be the fond pique type with its really deep punt.

I can also agree that this was certainly a top quality wine. Even three days after opening it, it is still drinking very well (but I am keeping it at cellar temperature of 12C). There was no sign of a label, but there was some staining on the bottle which might have once been a label. Given the damp conditions in the cellar that the bottle was kept, it would not surprise me at all if the label had rotted away over the years.

I have drunk a fair number of bottles of top quality claret from the 1940s, and this seems older to me - but is even tastier today than it was yesterday.

I am grateful to have been in the right place at the right time and to have been paid this bottle as my consultancy fee.