I’ve been starting to dip my toes into buying aged wine at auction and specifically here through WineBid. This 1988 Far Niente Cab caught my eye for sentimental reasons, but the fill level seemed like what I would expect to see from newer wines. I was hoping the community could help determine if the fill level was too good to be true, or if it’s within the acceptable range.
I have bought many mid-1980’s to early-1990’s California reds with such excellent fill levels, without any sign of alteration or misrepresentation.
Rudy, John, and Allen have better things to do.
Properly stored wines from that era should still have fills like this. Understanding a particular winery’s typical fill levels at bottling time in the era you are looking at can also help you judge how much ullage you actually have. Some wineries over-fill, some don’t. Bottlings that were done by hand can have variability in fill level too.
Net: This bottle fill looks fine to me.
fred
The fill level looks fine, and is not at all unusual for wine from the 80s. If anything, it’s positive and not a cause for concern.
I’m not an expert on Far Niente’s offerings, but it appears this wine was a late release and held at the winery for an extended period of time which might help explain it’s appearance.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. Nice to hear that this wine has all the signs of legitimate wine. I read so much about fill levels here that it got me wondering.
Looks like a good fill level to me for a late 80’s Cali wine.
What everyone has said.
What’s more, if it were htms I would surely avoid.