Expert: Paul Wagner - 6/1/2006

Question
I found an old bottle of kruskovac imitation pear liqueur... It is labled as sunset yellow no.5. It was produced and bottled by maraska - zadar - yugoslavia.  Its contents is 750 ml and is 56 proof. Now this is interesting it was imported by western internation imports in in chicago illin. 66611, however western internation imports hasnt been based in chicago for several years... The bottle has a red foil, which is still sealed covering the lid.  It also has a glass (maybe 2 1/2 in) bottle tied to the top of the bottle.  The bottle is kind of egg shaped, and it looks very old.  Would you be able to help me find the value of this?

Answer
Hi Marie:

While the bottle you have may be old ( I would guess from the early 1980s or late 1970s) the sad part of the tale is that liqueurs do not improve with age like wine does.  The alcohol level is so high that they really don't change much at all.  And since this is not a famous brand at all (compared to Courvoisier, for example) the value of this bottle would really only be to a collector of bottles, not a spirits connoisseur.  As such, it is probably worth about $25-50 or so. Sorry to be the bearer of sad news.

Paul Wagner