Expert: Paul Wagner - 10/18/2011

Question
Thank you for your time. I have a bottle of D.O.M Benedictine. It has a circular sticker on the front with D.O.M, a cross and Le Directeur with a signature AL on it. The bottom sticker has the words BENEDICTINE Marques deposees en France et lEtranger 43% and a signature. The bottle appears to be quiet old. Another sticker around the other side of the bottle is in french. The bottle is still sealed. Stickers say is has 11.15/16 Fluid Ounces nett, Produce of France. The bottle is green and the glass is stamped benedictine, with crosses and marquee of deposee also stamped on it. Could you tell me if you can still drink it, how old would it be and is the bottle valuable?

Answer
Hi Adelle

Distilled spirits like this are so high in alcohol that they don't change, for better or for worse, once they go into the bottle.  So the good news is that your bottle is perfectly good to drink.  The bad news is that it won't have appreciated in value the way some fine wines do.  This one is worth just about what a current bottling of the same stuff is worth. I'd estimate around $30 US.

And the companies don't want consumers to be looking for one bottling or the other---that's why they deliberating obscure such issues as bottling dates and vintages.  This is all blended at any rate, so no one bottle has particular value over another.  

By the way, the bottle itself might be more collectible than the liquid inside.  You can check with the nice people at antiquebottles.com about that...

Sorry that I can't give you more exciting news....but hope you enjoy it!

Paul Wagner