Check out the condition of this bottle of wine!!!

WINE TALK
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Fantastic ullage; fantastic condition of the label, fantastic!!!

I am reminded of the old joke of two women who have not met in twenty years. The first one says: Since I last saw you I married a man with 300,000,000 million dollars. The second comment: “Fantastic”. The first goes on: “And he bought me a diffrerent Cadillac for every day of the week”. The second observes “Fantastic”. And on and on…

Finally the first asks the second and what have you done since I last saw you and she answers: “Well, I went to charm school”. “Charm school” the first says,“what did they teach you at charm school”?" And the second says “They tought me to say fantastic instead of bullshit”

Unless that bottle was topped up, re-corked and re-capsuled at the winery (which would be extraordinarily unusual for a 375) and given a new label that wine is simply fantastic.

Best
Rogov

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+1

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[welldone.gif] Indeed, a bit tough to imagine a 74 year old bottle looking like that, although stranger things have happened.

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It’s had a face lift, laser resurfacing, and lipo-augmentation. Then it had a new label put on it, and the contents replaced. At 74 she’s as good as new now…

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The thing I always wonder is: What do you use for the counterfeit wine?

What would mimic a 74-year-old California Cabernet?

Something from the 1960s or 1970s?

The high estimate is only $185, and it’s hard to see how you could do this profitably.

You’ve got to source the fake [but plausible] wine, you need several days’ worth of work on the fake label [maybe up to a week?], another several days’ worth of work on the fake cork [where do you source old, musty, wine-stained, rotten corks that are otherwise undamaged?], and maybe a day’s worth of work on the fake aluminum foil.

You’d need to be counterfeiting these by the thousands if you wanted to earn a living at it.

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The fill is about top shoulder, not sooooo unbelievable.

Unlikely, yes.

Could it happen? yes.

The label is obviously new.

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I hate to say 100% it’s new since it’s a digital photo and I can’t see it in person. But based on the photo, it does NOT look like an old label.

It might be a genuine old bottle with a new label from the winery, but I would think that would be mentioned if it were true…

Bruce

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I seem to remember that Simi sold Cabs and Zins from their library in the late 70’s or early '80’s. I don’t remember if any tenths were sold but fiths of the Cab and Zin were on the market back then. If Jason Brandt Lewis ever visited here I’m sure he could shed some light on this.

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+1.375

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Sean, that’s probably it.

Just got off the phone with John Deuch (sp?) from winebid and he thinks that it is one of the re-release of library wines. He’s expecting some additional info from Simi and will let me know.

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Yeah, specifically '35 Cabs and Zins. Not sure when the library release was for these, but they aren’t uncommon wines. I see them often on winebid and in TNs.

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I purchased several of these wines in the late 80s, Simi Cabs and Zins from the 30s and 40s. The fills are uniformly better than the bottle shown here, and the labels are spotless.
I was told they were library releases straight from the winery when I purchased them (from a very reputable SF retailer). I’ve only opened one to date, I think it was a mid-40s Zin.
The wine was in great shape. Served blind most people around the table (north Coast winemakers) guessed mid-80s Napa or Sonoma Cabernet.

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I had the wine probably 10 years ago and it was one of the greatest Cali cabs that I’ve ever had. My understanding is that in the 80’s the winery released a stash of it for whatever reason, I believe there is 35 Zin out there as well.