Expert: Paul Wagner - 11/8/2011

Question
I have a old bottle of hudson's bay rum not openend is it good to drink! And how much is it worth pation # is 369494 i belive its the first year screw on stopper,hudson's bay company on top of stopper with what tooks to be two deer and H.B.C. Around the nick.  Thank you morgan

Answer
Hi Morgan

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