Strange find

My boss and I went to do a home repair estimate today. The house has been vacant for awhile. Basically the owner will never be able to return and the house needs to be prepped to sell. Went through the whole house and then opened a door tucked away in the basement and found this:





I think its wine, or was anyway. I didn't open any of them yet. according to the masking tape labels whatever it is was put there from between 1969 and 1973... the airlocks have probably been dry for 30+ years... what to do with 100+ gallons of 40 year old vinegar.

Not gonna lie, thats just effing creepy. You seriously should (smell first) try some. Dude, that could be some good ****, who cares if the air locks have been dry, you never know!

So are there any 6.5 gal carboys, and how much to ship to NC......lol

nitrousjunkie said:

So are there any 6.5 gal carboys, and how much to ship to NC......lol

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X2 or just a bottle to MI?

Chances are that is some damn good wine!

Looks like the baggies were sealed so good chance no bacteria. Give it a try and get back to us, whatcha got to lose?

That is kind of creepy, but I think that might rank up there beating the Crags list scores it the wine is still good. And there is a good chance it is.
Let us know.

why was the house abandoned?

yeah...it is really strange...do you get to keep the carboys?

Oh my word..doesn't it sort of remind you of the egg farm in alien?



But if they were sealed up really well, even if the airlocks were dry, there may be some fantastic wines in there...maybe never to be duplicated, or tasted again...or maybe just a lot of nice glass carboys...but wow what a find...even a creepy one.

I mean, that is bulk aging heaven. They could be exquisite.

+a bunch on the wines might be awesome.

Too early to tell.

It's a completely organic process right? Can't it go down the drain if it is bad? Take a length of 1/2 tubing with you to empty them out...

nice find ... BUT I have to say someone owns them . If the person just left the home and the bank took it over everything in there is theirs as abandoned. if the owner is dead then it belongs to next of kin. So I would be weary of just taking them ...

wow, that is an amazing find, not gonna have too many finds like that

Ok, I have to find out how this turns out. Subscribed.

Ditto subscribed.

macabra11 said:

Ok, I have to find out how this turns out. Subscribed.

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LOL me too, I mean whats the worst it could be? Someones idea of a blood bank ! ! !:

I think they made their limit for the year.

'69-'73? Geez, how long has the place been abandoned?

i gotta repeat, that could be some 1-of-a-kind wine. you have to at least get a sample from each, see what it is.

springer said:

nice find ... BUT I have to say someone owns them . If the person just left the home and the bank took it over everything in there is theirs as abandoned. if the owner is dead then it belongs to next of kin. So I would be weary of just taking them ...

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+1. Beware. No reason to risk either criminal prosecution or civil litigation over wine (even good wine). If the bank owns it, why not contact them and make an offer to purchase? They probably would be happy to get all those carboys off the property, and you may get a good deal.

69-73... wasn't that during the Healy Heights Hooker slayings?
Chupacabra-style killings.

Never found the guy.

olllllo said:

69-73... wasn't that during the Healy Heights Hooker slayings?
Chupacabra-style killings.

Never found the guy.

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Sounds like a dessert of fine aged wine and ladyfingers may be in order.

dwarven_stout said:

Sounds like a dessert of fine aged wine and ladyfingers may be in order.

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mmmmm...ladyfingers.

We don't start till next week so its a mystery till then. The situation is that the owner is elderly and broke his hip 4 years ago and is confined to a wheelchair. He has not been able to return since his accident. The children have already been through the house and have taken all they wanted. We are responsible for liquidating what's left and doing all the repairs to get the house on the market. I already said I would take care of the wine (and carboys). I'm thinking now maybe I should load them up as is or maybe take a bunch of 2 liter PET bottles and an autosiphon. I sent the pictures to my step father who is a commercial wine maker and he is all excited too. - guess I need to see what's in there...

Fascinting, creepy, and.... I can't wait to hear more!

N_G

Good deal! I'd be very careful with those while moving them. Do not try to transfer until you've gotten a clean sample from each.

Even though they had baggies on them, I wonder how much O2 and other stuff got exchanged.

Subscribed as well. Creepy, trippy and chock full of awesome all at the same time

And you're in Oregon, so now you have peaked my interest, I am subscribed as well. Oregon can make some great Pinot Noir, perhaps that what it is and it ages well.

My best friends live in the same old house he grew up in as a kid. His father or grandfather was a wine maker back in the 50's. Last summer while moving stuff around to install some surround sound speakers one day last summer, we moved piece of furniture that turned out to be hiding this small rack of 50 year old wine bottles...full.

Most of the had written labels were worn off, but one of them was labeled pear.

After chilling it for a couple days I came back and we sampled it. It was amazing...even though it had turned the color of raisin juice (probably since the may have used raisons as yeast) it was amazing...it was no longer like a wine, more like a pear brandy....Same color, same raisin and caramel notes, and really really smooth. It was intensly Pear like, like concentrated. It was a tad oxydized, but still amazingly drinkable.

I keep forgetting to get them to open more of them.

After sampling and confirming that the wine is worth the trouble (probably is) what I would do is siphon each to a fresh carboy. If you have a couple days you can siphon into a clean carboy (I'm sure you already have a couple), insert stopper, transport. Do what you can to minimize headspace. Oxyclean liberated carboys over night, repeat.

Transporting as is will likely stir up sediment. At the very least, get non drilled stoppers to reduce the chance of infection/additional oxidation while transporting. If it's gone to vinegar I'm sure you'll still have no problems finding new homes for it.

Chester said:

We are responsible for liquidating what's left

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let me know if you need any help "liquidating" the contents of those carboys.

on another note... yeah that is very creepy.

ok now that I know the situation i say go for it

I would give my pinky toe on my left foot for a find like that. I soooo need some more carboys lol

dam, and i was all excited finding this in a house i just bought.

your find blows mine away.

73 gallons of wine? im not big on wine but if i found that mother load, id take a italian corker down their and go to town. come out with 360 aged bottles of wine. for me that'd be more then a lifetime supply. i dont think the rooms creepy at all. just bad lighting after 70 years.

This is insane. Subscribed.

If it was properly sulfited, the wine may be OK, but you will want to make sure you get some fresh meta in there right away so YOU don't oxidize it. I would use a thief to remove a sample to taste, and if it seems OK, then rack carefully without moving the carboy into a fresh carboy with 6 crushed Campden tablets in it to ensure you don't oxidize the wine. Probably best to rack 1" off the bottom so you don't stir up any old sediment.

If you can get your hands on a CO2 tank and wand, it also wouldn't hurt to purge the destination carboy with CO2 before racking into it.

Waiting with fingers crossed!

I agree with everyone that this is creepy creepy. This is like a suspense novel..... we need to find out what happens in the end!

I gotta know! Is it full of eyeballs? Is it full of the greatest port ever? Is is full of vinegar?.... I GOTTA KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mnm129 said:

I agree with everyone that this is creepy creepy. This is like a suspense novel..... we need to find out what happens in the end!

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No, like a classic 80's Science fiction/horror movie....