Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Museum finds wines from the 1700s hidden behind Prohibition-era wall

Old wines are treasures. The latest finding involves 18th Century Madeira, hiding in New Jersey

There have been some great wine discoveries over they years, often involving bottles hundreds of years old. We’ve seen everything from vintage Champagne in sunken ships to wine jars buried in the pyramids with the great King Tut. The most recent tale involves very, very old Portuguese wine.

Some 50 bottles of Madeira were found during a demolition exercise in New Jersey, the oldest dating back to 1769. It happened after workers smashed through a Prohibition-era wall at Liberty Hall Museum. The oldest bottle of the found bunch is older than the United States.

The bottles are in good shape, considering, and it’s been reported that some may fetch $20,000 a piece at auction. Being a fortified wine, Madeira is known to age very well, especially when stored properly. There’s a good chance that many of these bottles are still in good drinking shape.

Many fortified wines were made for that very purpose: to age well. In the early days, they needed to stand up to long journeys by boat to get to their destination. It’s likely that this particular find would drink a bit like fine sherry, complex and oxidized.

Why the hidden stash? This was common practice for collectors around the Prohibition era as it was a means to protect their illicit bottles. Apparently, the museum staff had no idea there was such a collection and would not have found it if not for the most recent renovation project.

It makes you wonder how many more collections like this have yet to be unearthed. There are old homes all over—on the east coast especially—where incredible bottles may be lurking beyond plain sight. The latest New Jersey find (not to be confused with the bizarre pasta discovery in the same state) certainly will not be the last.

Like the best Scotch or rare, one-off lots of bourbon, these bottles of Madeira are extremely valuable. What’s more, they seem to be in good health, with proper seals and not much in the way of damage. That means the liquid inside, while in some cases 254 years old, might be in its prime.

Let’s break down what drinking something this old really means. The year 1769 predates even the electric telegraph. Hot air balloons had not even been invented yet, nor flush toilets. Soda water was only in its infancy, invented two years earlier. The Revolutionary War was still six years out.

To sip something from then would be to time travel way, way back. We won’t get to because we don’t have the cash to buy those bottles, but we’ll be looking at the walls of old buildings a bit differently from now on. There could be liquid treasure in them there walls.

Editors' Recommendations

Mark Stock
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
Study signals bad news for seafood lovers hoping for fewer canceled crab seasons
Crab season's outlook continues to appear less than ideal. Here's the latest scientific reveal
Crab on display at the store.

Climate change is kind to nobody, or thing, but it has been extra hard on certain sea creatures as of late. With canceled crab seasons and struggling populations in various spots all over the globe, shellfish are now being dealt an unfavorable hand of cards by way of a dramatically warming planet. Turns out that heatwaves hit the oceans, too, and that doesn't bode well for some of our favorite seafood friends.

Recent research suggests these marine heatwaves, or extended stretches wherein the ocean water temperature is well above the average, will negatively impact life even at the base of the food chain. Researchers looked specifically at the Atlantic mangrove fiddler crab, a species enjoyed by all kinds of animals, from waterfowl and fish to humans. Data was collected in three coastal locations — Brazil, Norway, and the U.S. — and the findings are not promising, especially for those who like cooking with shellfish.

Read more
Why Italian food absolutely deserves to be UNESCO-recognized
As Italian cuisine becomes even more iconic, it's achieving UNESCO status
Plate of pasta

 

Italian food is incredible stuff. From hearty pasta dishes to remarkable wine, the cuisine at large is among the best on earth. And now, it's (almost) a UNESCO-recognized genre of food.

Read more
Perfect for any man cave, this 130-can beverage cooler is $50 off
The Insignia beverage cooler holds 130 cans.

Mancave, office, patio, game room, theater room, or heck, even just a bedroom, these are all perfect places to stow a mini fridge. Why? Because of sheer laziness, maybe a little, but also because it's super convenient to have your beverages and snacks available right there, right when you want them. You don't have to make a trip to the kitchen or anywhere else. Whether for wine,  beer, or soda, the best wine coolers and fridges are strangely compact but sizable at the same time -- the latter meaning they can hold a few cans or bottles. They're also available at a great price, like the Insignia 130-can beverage cooler available for a discount at Best Buy, right now. Normally $370, you can get it for $320 thanks to the current deal and save $50 in the process. The 115-can variant is also on sale, for $250 saving you $50, as well. Hurry and check those deals out, they won't last forever.

Why You Should Buy the Insignia 130-Can Beverage Cooler
Okay, so, maybe Insignia's 130-can cooler didn't make it on our list of the best beverage coolers for 2023, but that's okay because it's not just comparable, it has a lot of additional features that make it worthy of your attention. For example, the touch controls and LED display make it easy to adjust temperature settings and keep an eye on your cold storage. Plus, there are three fully-adjustable wood-trimmed shelves for the interior, which you can use to organize your snacks, beverages, and whatever else you might store inside.

Read more