A little help here?

[The Apostate]

As everyone in the restaurant trade knows, this is the slowest time of year.

So, last night the owner and I go over some odd jobs to keep the staff busy, one of which is to clean up and organize the downstairs liquor room.

While down there, we find a bunch of old collapsed and dirt encrusted cartons, which obviously haven't been touched in decades.

The boss says to throw them out.

I checked them out and and they seem to be mostly german whites (Mosel) from the mid-sixties (the building was a german restaurant in a former incarnation) with a couple of sparkling burgundies (New York) and some splits of french champagne, all mid-60's vintages.

Does anyone have a guess as to wether any of it would be worth saving?

Most of the labels are dry rotted and nearly unreadable, so this is about all the information I have.

[Florida Jim]

I checked them out and and they seem to be mostly german whites (Mosel) from the mid-sixties (the building was a german restaurant in a former incarnation) with a couple of sparkling burgundies (New York) and some splits of french champagne, all mid-60's vintages.

Assuming any kind of quality to start with and that storage has been consistently cool, the German wines should be interesting and you may even get a dandy or two. The sparklers, both red and white, are properly passed their prime but, one never knows - I suggest popping a few corks rather than immediate discard.

Best, Jim

[Brad Ballinger]

I'm with Jim. There's nothing to lose by pulling the corks. I don't know my sixties vintages very well for those wines, except that 1964 was a good year in Champagne. I've had German wines from 1971 (a fantastic vintage by all accounts) and the wines have been stunning and nowhere close to dead on arrival.

Let us know so we can all learn.