Expert: Paul Wagner - 12/11/2009

Question
I received a bottle of L'abbé Francois cherry brandy in a porcelain or ceramic decanter attached to the neck and handel is a cork and ceramic cover it also has water and  3 small sail boats painted on it in blue it is numbered. My question is how can I find out how old is this brandy ,can we still drink it and what is it worth.

Answer
Hi Angele

Distilled products like this are so high in alcohol that they don't change much over time.  The good news is that your should be perfectly good to drink.  The bad news is that it hasn't really appreciated in value the way some fine wines do.  I'd guess the liquor is worth about $35-40 or so.  But the bottle may be worth far more, because of the history involved.  Check with the guys at antiquebottles.com to see if they know of a market for these.  They are very helpful.

Sorry that I can't give you more exciting news!

Paul Wagner