Expert: Paul Wagner - 12/10/2010

Question
QUESTION: I have a one tenth pint bottle of White Horse Scotch.the bottle is still
sealed and full. Label in front and back are in very good condition and
there's a blue one and one half tax stamp from Florida on it. How can I
find out how old this is and what it might be worth?

ANSWER: Hi Michael

Distilled spirits like this are so high in alcohol that they don't change much in the bottle, for better or worse.  The good news is that this should be perfectly good to drink.  The bad news is that it won't have appreciated in value the way some fine wines do.  This is worth just about as much as a current bottling of decent scotch.

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

Paul Wagner

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

QUESTION: Upon first finding this site I noticed someone had an empty larger bottle,
but although empty you estimated the value of 25 to 50 dollars. Wouldn't
a sealed full bottle be worth a bit more? Either way, I'm sure ill enjoy it
with a good cigar. I'm still curious though of how old this might be. I'm
guessing late 30s or early 40s maybe?  

Answer
Hi Michael

Thanks for the follow up.  I hope I didn't make a mistake on that first question--I generally don't suggest any value on an empty bottle, as I really don't know that market well.  Collectible bottles are a world unto themselves! I may have misunderstood, and thought that the bottle still had most of the liquor inside.

At any rate, it is REALLY hard to tell how old your bottle is--partly because spirits companies frequently try to use packaging that looks intentionally old so that it implies the liquor is more valuable...even if it was bottled yesterday!

The guys at antiquebottles.com are better at this than I am, I would suggest that you ask them!