Expert: Paul Wagner - 1/4/2012

Question
Dear Paul
 I have a 1877 unopened bottle of Naglee Brandy. Curious of it's value and where to find any information on this brandy? Thank You for you help!

Answer
Hi Tonya

What a great story!

General Naglee was a major player in the history of early California, and his brandy was quite famous (and good!).  So here is what I can tell you:

Distilled spirits like brandy are so high in alcohol that they don't change much, for better or for worse, in the bottle.  The good news is that they last forever and basically never go bad.  The bad news is that they don't appreciate over time the way some fine wines do.

So what you have is a good bottle of brandy that tastes pretty much like it did 100 years ago.  

On that level it won't have much value at auction--connoisseurs and collectors generally don't buy these older bottles of distilled spirits because they don't taste any better than current bottlings---and some are a lot worse.  (You bottle, just by way of information, almost certainly sold for less than one dollar when it was originally released!)

But there is a historical value ( quite independent from the wine lovers value ) of this bottle that may be more interesting.  Collectors of early Californiana, or even museums might be interested in this bottle.  IN that case, you might be able to either sell it or donate it and take a tax deduction for the value of the bottle.  

Here's a link to a story about General Naglee...and some of his impact on California's history.
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=30196

You might check with UC Davis, or the California Historical Society, to see if they have interest in this bottle.

And please let me know what they say.  As a native Californian, I'm interested in how this turns out!

Paul Wagner