Expert: Paul Wagner - 9/14/2011

Question
I was given a bottle of napoleon old liqueur cognac. The bottle neck has by appointment of the late King George VI courvoisier on it. The nomber limite is C00199, can you please advise of year & value.
many thanks

Answer
HI Mandy

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.  Each lot is blended to taste the same as previous lots, and the companies don't want people asking for different lots or dates.  So that is all deliberately obscured in the packaging. The real ckue on this one is the reference to the lake King George, which would date this sometime in the early 1950's.

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.  

But the bottle itself may be worth more.  For information about collectible bottles, I would check with the nice people at antiquebottles.com.

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

Paul Wagner