Expert: Paul Wagner - 4/15/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi Paul,
I have a very old bottle of whiskey bottled by the waterloo bridge distillery in London.
The brand name is Piccadilly Club, can you tell me the value and where I can get some more information for this bottle, there is no stamp date or number on the bottle, see attached image

ANSWER: HI Craig

This is a puzzler.  Typically, Scotch Whisky is spelled without the "e" and I am a little confused as to why this one is spelled in the American manner...

That said, distilled spirits like this are so high in alcohol that they don't ever change much in the bottle.  The good news is that this one is almost certainly fine to drink.  The bad news is that it won't have appreciated in value the way some fine wines do.  This is probably worth about $35 tops for the liquid inside.  

But the bottle itself may be worth more--I would check with the folks at antiquebottles.com  They have a great website with lots of information--and they also sometimes offer help to owners of rare or unusual bottles.

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

Paul Wagner

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the information.
For just the spirits inside the bottle you said it is worth about $35 and to a bottle collector the bottle may be worth something, I will check with them but what about a historical collector for a full bottle of whiskey.
The anniversary of the battle of waterloo is coming up in the year 2015, are there collector of complete bottles of historical whiskey.

Answer
Hi Craig

Good question.  In my experience, there are not a lot of collectors like this--certainly not among liquour connoisseurs, which is my area of expertise.  But the bottle collectors might be more likely to do this.  I'd check with them.

Hope that helps.

Paul Wagner