I have 3 early sealed bottles of Dom Perignon - I think its 1954 and 1959 - two from one year and one from the other - cant remember exactly and I am not home… the bottles have loss of liquid (evaporation) - I am pretty certain these bottles are not suitable for drinking - anyone have a ballpark concerning value?
Unless they’ve been in proper storage they’re not worth anything.
Could be fun to open and see what you find.
According to Wine Market Journal, the auction average price is $793 for the 1959. There isn’t a 1954, but if it’s the 1955, the average auction value is $424.
Now, those prices would be for bottles coming from reputable sellers who are known to have kept bottles in proper storage and all, but it at least gives you an idea that there could be significant value in these wines if you’re looking to sell.
Also, as far as evaporation, any (real) wine from the 1950s is going to have had evaporation and much lower fills than new bottle. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that the wines are dead or bad.
I’m not sure what you’re looking to do with those wines, whether drink or sell, but I would give it some thought at least.
Before anyone tosses out price estimates, the very first question that needs to be answered is…
Where have the bottles been stored all their life?
Hey Officer Andy. Good to see you posting.
I was simply pointing out that (a) these bottles potentially have real value (depending on assortment of factors), and (b) the fact that the fill levels are lower doesn’t necessarily mean the wines are bad or dead. I didn’t want Robert thinking these were automatically worthless old curiosities.
Now, as to how much, if anything, they are worth in sale, you’d have to get into the storage, history, fill levels, how you take it to market, etc.
Hey Chris,
No worries, just I’m used to new posters who aren’t knowledgeable about a wine’s worth asking such questions. So the very first thing that I ask is; where has it been all it’s life. I’ve found that once numbers start flying around people automatically think they can actually get that for their bottles. No matter how much you try and tell them later when the full story of how it’s been stored, condition, etc becomes known.
Brig and you could both be spot on in this case. They could be worth nothing, or a good amount…
And I would ask Robert to post pictures of the bottles if he can. More often than not that helps more than anything else. After all a picture is worth a thousand words, I think LOL
I don’t have the answer - I work at a consignment shop and a lady brought them in with some things she wanted to consign - the owners flat out refused to take them because it would be unlawful for them to sell - so I acquired them - I know that she had a case of each and they marked her marriage year and the birth of her sons year - that’s all I know - I do not know how they were stored or where - I will snap some pics and post them when I get home tonight - I am an antique dealer on the side of my regular job and sell things on eBay regularly and was going to post them but eBay doesn’t allow it without being a dealer - I did word searches and even the empty bottles bring a surprising amount of money - one empty bottle brought $500! - and the sealed bottles from just the 1990’s bring $300-400 - but I couldn’t find any examples this early - not even close to how old these ones are… so yes - I was inquiring because I am interested in selling - and I don’t want to rob someone else or myself… appreciate all the help this far - I will post the pics tonight…
With unknown provenance, no reputable auction house will accept these for consignment. There is a large problem with counterfeiting wine and I would urge you not to sell any empty bottles as this can contribute to the problem.
Robert,
Will all due respect, This is kinda like the TV show “Pawn Stars” in that everyone thinks they found the motherload to get rich from. While in reality very few truly find it. I suggest you listen to what people* on this board say as they know what they are talking about and avoid the random internet search which often has inaccurate information. High prices on DP are for certain vintages and for certain brands of DP with well documented histories.** Not some random bottles which were probably stored in a warm closet for all these years and are most likely cooked and won’t be drinkable. As based on your own post where you said these probably aren’t drinkable.
- For example, Poppy works a wine auction company and knows her stuff.
** Did you know Dom Perignon also has a Rose and an Oenotheque that typically sell for more than the regular one?
I dunno, mebbe about tree-fitty?
You can at least start at about two quarter or somethin’.
I’ve never had any intentions of sending them off to a wine auction, or think I have the holy grail - I am what they would call a “glass expert” - I know old unsigned art glass probably better than most professional appraisers - I know how easy it can be to find a $1000 vase - I know the near impossibility of finding a $10,000 vase - I am just trying to evaluate the value of these sealed condition bottles that I said were probably undrinkable - it has to be more than if the bottles were empty - and as I said empty bottles do bring decent money - a word search on eBay isn’t just random - when something REPEATEDLY fetches a certain price in the worlds largest online marketplace then that is a true measure of its secondary market value - when lets say a 1992 bottle fetches between 300-400 18 times in a row then we know that the bottle is worth 300-400… unfortunately (or fortunately) no one has any of these bottles in any condition so no prices have been established… here is the piccies - ohhh I guess this was all worthless - you don’t allow uploads to the site? I don’t have a host site to store photos - I haven’t been on a site in years that doesn’t allow direct photo uploads…
Hit post a reply
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Robert, i’m looking at the listing you said sold for $500. It’s a 6L bottle of dom perignon. Those are pretty rare. People are buying it for the bottle size, not the vintage of the wine.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Exclusive-Dom-Perignon-Brut-6L-Sealed-Methuselah-Champagne-Bottle-Empty-/221315576508?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33876fb2bc
That being said, a photo of your bottles would be helpful but not as helpful as finding out where the lady stored her wine to begin with.
Can’t wait to see pics
Hi Robert, just letting you know you must have made a mistake as there was no 1954 Dom Perignon produced. The vintages in the 50s were 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1959.
Now the value of these bottles is ENTIRELY dependent on provenance. At over 55 years of age there is no chance of these still being good unless they have been very well stored. Even excellently cellared Doms are variable once you get over about 35 years old. I had all the vintages from the 1970s last week (70/71/73/75/76/78/80) and some of these great vintages are starting to tire even from good storage.
The other problem you will have with selling the 1959 is that even though it was an great vintage, there is huge bottle variation. They had problems with the bottle manufacture this year both in 750ml and Magnum, this meant that many of the bottle necks were slightly warped, (you can feel it with your finger if you put it inside a used bottle). This meant that the cork didn’t seal properly so they oxidised a long long time ago. I remember a note from Tom Stevenson who said in the late 90s that even from perfect storage at Dom Perignon itself, they had to waste three oxidised Magnums before finding a good one.
The sum of all of this is that even if you had amazing provenace for these bottles, whoever brought them would be gambling. With no provenance it would be a very big gamble. I’ve never had any Dom from the 50s and would be extremely interested in them if they came up at auction here, but I’d never pay more than $250USD and I’d be burning money at that. Ideally I’d be aiming for $175ish. And that’s more for interest value than anything else, I really wouldn’t expect them to be good.
As far as the value of an empty bottle. MAYBE a legitimate Dom Perignon collector would pay $50-$70ish so they could have the empty in an unfinished collection, but much more likely (and especially if they are offering a silly sum) is that it would be going to a forger.
There’s a huge difference between a 6L and a 750 mL. Whoever bought that 6L for $500 is likely refilling and selling forged wine, so if you want to support that, it’s your decision. You’d know if these had been stored well and they wouldn’t have ended up in your hands. The person would have sold them to a wine auction house. They almost definitely haven’t been stored properly. Where are they now? Are they at a constant temperature between 50 and 60 degrees F? Probably not, right? They’re worth very little, and it basically doesn’t matter that there’s wine/vinegar in them. Yes, they are worth something as bottles, but unless it’s well under $100 each, probably only forgers are interested.
it doesn’t make sense - at the top of a reply I only get a box that says IMG or URL which doesn’t allow me to upload my own pics - at the bottom of the page where brigcampell instructed me to look I only have these options:
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there is no place that says “upload attachment”
Directly above “disable BBCode”
“upload attachement”
from the original reply box click the “preview” then you will see the upload attachment option.
