For The Love Of Port

On an October day about four years ago, Cambridge was hit by a freak rainstorm that dropped a quarter of the city's annual rainfall - 6.5" - in the space of a few hours.

The flash floods that ensued entered a number of college cellars (and also damaged my factory).

I've been offered a case of Warre '77 that got caught up in the deluge. The labels are severely rotted, and the glass lightly caked in silt. The capsules are all intact and in good order.

It is unlikely that they were submerged for any great length of time, but neither were they given any TLC after the event.

The price I'm being offered is over 30% below par for the vintage.

Yea or Nay? - What do people think?

Tom

I'd go for it.

I have just put in a few bids on some cases that I expect are now being released from the same flood. Interestingly, I bidded above the estimate for some SW 77 as I am desperate for some more but it went for one notch above my bid - effectively at full market price!

I put all in my bids at below mkt price and I think I've secured some Taylor '85 from this. You have to pay less as many people such as the Japanese are sqeamish about lack of labels, thereby reducing the market.

However, I'd rather have some whole soggy boxed cases from a great cellar where they have been since realease than a few odd ones from who knows where sold by a small retailer.

I say yes, and I am putting my money where my mouth is! (maybe Americans will find this phrase a bit odd, but Tom will know what I mean )

As long as they didn't get hot I'd go for it. Corks keep liquid in AND out. As long as there is no heat damage issue they should be just fine.

OK, executive decision made, goods paid for - and collected!

Now I have a little cleaning job to do...

Will try to find time to test drive one over Christmas

Tom

Another story of flood damage:

Katrina Destroys Once Great Wine Cellar

By MARY FOSTER
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In the dark, dank recesses of what was once one of the great wine cellars of the world, the fabled bottles sit. The 1870 Lafite Rothschild, the Chateau Moutons, Chateau Magaux - fine wines with enormous price tags, or at least they were.

The wine cellar at Brennan's Restaurant, winner since 1983 of Wine Spectator magazine's Grand Award as one of the 85 top cellars in the world, has 35,000 bottles that since Hurricane Katrina have gone from vintage to vinegar.

``They may be drinkable, but they're probably better for salads,'' said Ted Brennan, whose brother Jimmy spent 35 years building the collection.

The Brennan's wine cellar covers two floors in what was once the carriage house of the 1795 French Quarter mansion-turned-restaurant. Domestic wines are stacked to the ceiling on the first floor, European vintages on the second floor. Behind a locked gate is the private collection - dusty bottles of fine wines so costly they have waited for years for someone to taste them.

The collection, which was insured for $1 million, was ruined when the electricity went off after the hurricane. The wine cellar, normally kept at 58 degrees year-round, was suddenly at the mercy of the broiling sun and heat wave that followed the storm.

``It got so hot those few weeks, I know it easily got to 120 degrees in there,'' Brennan said. ``The wine was literally cooked.''

Wine lovers made regular pilgrimages to Brennan's to sample what cellar master Harry Hill believes was the biggest and best cellar between Florida and Texas and the Gulf of Mexico and Chicago.

Diners could easily add hundreds, even thousands of dollars to their tab by ordering wine. Hill sadly showed off a magnum of 1997 Opus One that the restaurant bought several years ago for $400, now worth $1,000.

``It was one of those years when God bent over and kissed California,'' Hill said of the wine, its bottle now covered with mold spots.

``Some of the youngest wines might be drinkable for someone who doesn't really know what to expect,'' he said. ``But even they have lost their finish.''

For older vintages, the heat's effect was worse.

There was also damage when cases of wine fell during the storm, exploding and spewing their contents over other bottles.

Before rebuilding the cellar, the Brennans will send the remaining bottles to a man in California who bought them from the insurance company, Ted Brennan said. The man plans to auction them off.

``Someone might want to buy a special bottle to commemorate an occasion,'' Brennan said. ``Or someone might want to roll the dice and hope to get a rare vintage cheap and be able to drink it.''

One bottle will be a special bargain.

That 1870 Lafite Rothschild. The Brennans bought it a decade ago for $14,000.

I would be tempted Tom

Tom,
Stuart,

I've had a couple of flood damaged bottles about 5 years ago and the quality of the wine did not seem to have been affected at all. I guess the "advantage" of a UK flood compared to a southern US flood is that the water tends to be around cellar temperature.

I suppose it will depend on the temperature at the time of the flood. If the cellars were artifically cooled then the flood waters are likely to have destroyed the cooling system and left the wine exposed to elevated temperatures, but October in Cambridge won't have had this problem.

Where did you pick up on the sales of the wines? I would be interested in seeing what was available and what the guide prices were.

Alex

They seem to have wiped it from the site now, but I was looking at the Christies South Ken. sale of 12 December (7152) lots 470-82

Confirmed on my account today that I got the Taylors '85. I admit, I like this one more than others out there do, but at GBP24 per bottle (including hammer, premium and tax) I'll do without the labels!

The New Orleans flood has little in common with the conditions I suspect the subject bottles were exposed to. In New Orleans the water temp was in the mid-to-upper 80's (F), more than enough to quite literally cook the wine as it lay submerged day after day in it......and your flood waters on October......I imagine not more than the 60's, but more likely in the 50's (again F.).......a temperture that would present no threat to the integrity of the wine.

I have listened to Michael Broadbent recount stories (while we sipped Port) about tasting bottles of Bordeaux from ancient ship wrecks that were submerged for decades in broken ship's hulls and eventually recovered. He said they were in fantastic shape and showed much younger than almost any other bottle he had tried from like vintages. He believed that it was the cold temperatures at the hundreds of feet down, that kept the wine so well.

He also told of a ship that went down less than a decade ago carrying millions of dollars of top notch first growths and grand cru Burgs. The wines were recovered and sold really cheap after the insurance company had made sure that the wine was recovered. I bet a web search could find this occurence.

I think that given the circumstances mentioned for the Warre's '77, it would be find to clean 'em up and drink 'em. Even in perfect condition though, this wine is never going to be any better than it is today.

Alex,

To answer your question about source, this case was supposed to have been sent to a local auction, but got overlooked.

I got a phone call asking if I could help someone out, and ended up paying £25/bottle.

The colleges work in mysterious ways - everyone in the admin office knew about the oversight, but no-one wanted to tell the big chief that they'd screwed up.

I was a little concerned that they might be attempting to raise some Xmas party money, but in the event I paid by cheque and was given a receipt - so all above board.

Tom

Roy Hersh wrote: Even in perfect condition though, this wine is never going to be any better than it is today.

I agree with Roy. I thought this was very good when I had it recently, but was more advanced than most other 77s. GBP25 is a good price and I would have had it. It currently goes for GBP35 at auction when the provenance is good.

This is what I thought of it:

1977 Warre (GBP 45.05) 95 ****+
Pale, considerable colour loss, brick rim extending well towards centre. Fragrant nose. Despite advanced appearance, tastes deep and well balanced, a bit sweeter than one would expect from Warre - more like a Graham but a lovely balance nonetheless. Very good now, but not as much future as expected. Still, very good.

Well, my flood-damaged Taylor 85 has turned up.

Labels a bit manky, original box with it, but that's a bit.....well wet..... and musty smelling.

I'll give it a while to settle and try one. The capsules look good and it was only GBP20 per bottle

Gave the porters here some practice for carrying that Fonseca 00 up fifteen flights of stairs in a couple of weeks. They're not keen doing it for me, better not tell them its for others :twisted:

Hopefully the Fonseca won't be wet and musty smelling!

Alex