H&H 1848 Madeira WS Boal--Selling Advice Requested

[A Green]

I just inherited a bottle of Henriques & Henriques 1848 WS Boal Madeira (bottled in 1927 and rebottled in 1957). While we like wine and dabble in port, my husband and I don't think we could truly appreciate the bottle so we've decided to sell it. I've heard back from Heritage Auctions. They have an auction coming up in the next 60 days and are excited to include our bottle in it.

Can anyone recommend someplace that might be better? I would prefer to sell it within the next couple of months--the longer it stays with us the more likely we are to decide to randomly open it and enjoy it ourselves.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[Andy Velebil]

I don't know where you live, but K&L wines is someplace to also look into.

Since it's just one bottle...Or just open it and slowly enjoy it. You don't have to finish it in one night. Or take it to a nice wine dinner with friends.

[Glenn E.]

I agree with Andy. Since it's just one bottle, and it was an inheritance, I'd keep it to sip as a memory.

One very nice thing about Madeira is that you can leave it open basically forever and it doesn't go bad. I have several bottles sitting on top of a half-size wine fridge in my dining room that I've been using as an experiment. The longest-open has been there for 10+ years and the last time I let someone taste it, they guessed it had been open maybe a couple of months. And that bottle is just a fairly basic level Madeira... something like your 1848 should be nigh indestructible.

You might get as much as $1000 or $1500 for the bottle, but it's hard to say. Don't let the 2017 Christie's auction fool you - that was a bottle from a noted collector and so more valuable due to its known provenance.

[David Spriggs]

There is also WineBid (https://www.winebid.com). I'm sure that they can sell it as well. They have an auction every week.
It's possible that K&L could sell it for slightly more.

[Justin A]

Im sure there are several people on this board who would happily pay $2000. Myself included.

[Eric Menchen]

Im sure there are several people on this board who would happily pay $2000. Myself included.

I would not be one of those people, as I much prefer Port over Madeira. So as a third party I will point out that if you sell directly to someone on this forum, you might not get quite as high a price as selling as at auction (although for a single bottle, hard to say how much difference), but you cut out the ~24+% that the auction house gets.