Madeira question

[Steve Pollack]

Is it common for a bottle of Madeira to have the top of the capsule cut and removed, and the cork exposed? I have recently seen two bottles of 1802 Oscar Acciaioly Terrantez in this condition. Would you be dubious of such a bottle? Thanks in advance.

Steve

[Roy Hersh]

I would consider these bottles to be highly suspect. Why would anyone cut the foil off a bottle such as this and not open it? Of course it is plausible, but I would not risk buying them without an iron clad guarantee of being able to return them for a FULL REFUND if they are not what they are stated to be. It is simply way too risky given the $1800-2500 one would pay for a bottle of this amazing elixir. Tread carefully!

[Reidar Andersen]

I am holding four of them and all four have waxed tops, and one ( I have not checked all ) with waxed seal from Barbeito... None of mine have foil..

[Peter Reutter]

I do not own a bottle of Oscar's 1802 Terrantez, but I have seen may be five or six bottles of this particular vintage. Only one bottle had a dark foil capsule that covered the top two inches of the bottle neck.
If the capsule has been removed, there is no way telling if the cork has been removed too and a new cork has been inserted. With tools and corks for less then 50 dollars and some practice it is a five-minute job to recork a bottle perfectly. There are easy ways to make the corks look "old". So the bottom line is: with the capsule and/or the sealing wax gone, there is no way telling if the cork is original. Even after pulling the cork, there is no safe way of knowing. Could be a used cork from a cheap colheita Madeira that has been re-used. Madeira corks usually do NOT have a branding with vintage year and producer.
These bottles seem to carry a very high risk, hands off!
Regards
Peter

[Eric Ifune]

I believe the two bottles were sold by Hart, Davis, Hart in Chicago. They're a company I've dealt with quite a bit and have been very happy with their service.
Is it possible the corks were inspected to ensure quality? Is the 1802 Acciaioly Terrantez possibly too esoteric for fraudulence? I think a counterfeiter would recapsule or wax such a bottle; or am I too gullible?

[David Spriggs]

Here is a bottle that recently came up at auction

[Reidar Andersen]

How much did it sell for ?

[Gary Banker]

The comments in this thread seem to beg the question of when the use of the foil become a common or standard practice with madeira wine. Does anyone have any information on the subject?

[Peter Reutter]

My oldest Madeira bottles with foils were bottled in the 1940ies, but of course it is not the shrink-foil plastic type of cover, but lead foil or some other metall. Since some companies like the CVM used the straw caps well into the 1970, in some cases even 80ies, it is hard to judge the date of bottling from the type of cover alone. However it is much more difficult to forge an old foil capsule than a wax cover, so I evry much wellcome the foil covers anyway.

[David Spriggs]

How much did it sell for ?

This sold for 830 Pounds. This was last January. Other bottles have sold for more since then.
-Dave-