For The Love Of Port

I just received a recently purchased 1966 VP. In shipping, that bottle didn't travel well and a lot of the wax seal came off in pieces, ending up in the styrofoam compartment, which itself kind of fell apart. (Of course the other less expensive bottles all came through just fine.) I have some heat-shrink capsules. Would my bottle benefit from one of these applied over the top of what is left of the wax? I've heard that those capsules are more decorative than functional, but I don't really know for sure. I'll probably open that bottle in the next few years, and I live in an extremely dry climate.
-Eric

Eric,

You have nothing to worry about as long as you've seen no signs of seepage. A wax capsule is rarely cause to worry, unless you've seen stained IVDP seals or other signs the VP has leaked past the cork. Otherwise, open the '66 at your pleasure and leisure.

What Roy said.

Thanks. No signs of seepage on this bottle, so I'll just leave it. Another bottle did have some signs of seepage, so I will put that one out of it's misery soon.

Eric Menchen wrote:Thanks. No signs of seepage on this bottle, so I'll just leave it. Another bottle did have some signs of seepage, so I will put that one out of its misery soon.

That's not necessary a bad sign... I had a 1963 Fonseca leaker that I took back to my parents' house in Missouri for Thanksgiving last year, and it's still the best bottle I've had (and I've had the '63 twice since then).

Just one word of caution. If you decide to keep the bottle for longer than just a few months, I would recommend putting the capsule on. where there is no capsule or wax seal, an open cork is exposed to insect attack. I have had one (and only one) case where I put a soundly corked bottle without a capsule in with my other bottles and 12 months later pulled it out and found woodworm (aka cork weevil) had attacked the cork. I was lucky as the weevil had not caused the cork to leak, but who knows what might have happened if I had left the bottle another 12 months.

Virtually all the 66's are fair game for drinking now, so I wouldn't bother.

Those little evil weevil devils can really do a number and I agree with Alex, in the case of prolonged storage ... it pays to reseal with wax and create a new capsule.