Expert: Paul Wagner - 7/6/2007

Question
Paul, I have a bottle of Armagnac Saint Vivant de la salle VSOP and think have correctly dated it to 1937 from oldliquors.com.  I am looking to find out its value, can you help - Many Thanks

Answer
Hi Robert;

Distilled spirits (like Cognac) do not improve with age in the bottle, so the liquor inside won't have appreciated a lot.  At the same time, the high alcohol levels will also protect the Cognac, so it still should taste pretty darn good.  I would guess this is worth about $100 on the liquor market...but that doesn't really answer your question.

If you can really document this as a bottle from 1937, then you might get a lot more money for it from the bottle collector market.  These folks don't buy bottles to drink them, but for the glass packaging itself.  

Sadly, I am not an expert in bottle collecting--only in beverages.  But there is a great site I hvae used oin the past:  http://www.antiquebottles.com/

Interestingly enough, they don't even have a category for Cognac!

Paul Wagner