For I have been to Ludlow fair, and left my necktie God knows where

[desperance]

Actually, I have been to the back of the cupboard under the stairs: for yes, working on the novel is that grim this morning, that I would sooner grovel on hands and knees and grope in shadow. The shadows are metaphorical, for it's very well-lit in there; disturbingly so. I can read the small print.

I have found a couple of bottles of beer, five or six years past their best-by date. I don't know how much or how far or how fast bottled beer goes off; I am willing to make that experiment. But I have also found a bottle of home-made fruit wine, dated 1987. That's, um, twenty-one this year. It's legal! I can drink it!

I'm really, really not sure that I want to.

Should I discard it unopened? Open it just to see, to sniff, and then discard it promptly? Open it and drink it if it's drinkable? You decide...

Comments

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Faint heart never won fair lady: open, investigate, and drink if drinkable!

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

I think you should make that experiment; enquiring minds out here need to know.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Open and sniff half an hour to forty-five minutes after a meal. That way if it puts you off food for a couple hours, you'll still be recovered for the next meal.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

If it's not drinkable, it might still be good vinegar.

I'm just sayin'.

How old does balsamic vinegar have to be to be balsamic vinegar?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Decades, the good stuff. I suspect there's more to it, though, than leaving wine too long...

Still. You may have a point; I have often been curious about the making of vinegar, and never had wine I wanted to sacrifice. Hmm...

*goes off to find out more about vinegar*

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Open, sniff. If sniffing proves unobjectionable, taste.

You never know, it might be nice. *g*

[szandara.livejournal.com]

This is what I was thinking--what you have here is probably not a drinkable wine, but an exotic vinegar which will make interesting salad dressing.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

We did that to a bottle of Silver Birch wine once. It wasn't precisely home made (we didn't make it, someone else with a small business did), but it survived remarkably well -- had turned into a sweet, rich dessert wine. Out-of-date beers, on the other hand,m have a tendency to be deeply horrid.

[muninnhuginn]

Depends on the beer. The home-brewed stouts I lost for five years were supurb.

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

Open the bottle. Take the money. Open the bottle. Take the money. Opened the bottle. Drank the money.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

I don't know how long home-made fruit wine will last. My grandfather was infamous for making wine out of any fruit that was available. Peach wine, strawberry wine, raspberry wine. I'm sure he would've made wine out of fruit of the looms if he could've. But his wine never got to sit long enough for anyone to question whether it was still wine *snerk*.

What fruit is it, and under what conditions was it stored?

Like others have said, the thing about wine is that it never goes bad, it's just either wine or vinegar. So, you can either have it with your salad or on your salad. Plus, the culinary applications are legion.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Another vote for opening it all, just to see. If it smells nasty, you don't have to go any further; and if it doesn't smell nasty, how bad can it taste?

Alternatively, put it aside for a day when I can come and hold your hand, and come out this evening to taste some real wine instead...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Maybe. I dunno; I'm tired, and it's raining. And I can't afford to buy any nice wine even if it's nice, and I'm tired, and did I mention that I'm tired...?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

So what did you do in the end, defer a decision?

And you missed a good one on Tuesday, we certainly drank our entrance fee worth (and then ordered a case anyway, so you'll probably get to try some of it).

Are you feeling less tired now? Still on for this evening?

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

oh, hell, at least *open* it!

[samarcand.livejournal.com]

Leave it until this Friday when you can get many people together to try it or otherwise? And I shall act as external, impartial observer - considering it all smells and tastes like off vinegar to me...

[cristalia.livejournal.com]

Sniff test!

[wishus.livejournal.com]

We opened some of my dad's plum wine that was a decade old. He declared it undrinkable. I actually tried it and after one sip felt quite giddy! I nearly cried when he poured it down the sink.

[carandol.livejournal.com]

I once found a bottle of my (long-dead) grandmother's 25-year-old rhubarb wine at the back of one of my parents' cupboards. It was nectar of the gods!

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

DO NOT DRINK THE BEER. Chances are it's full of sediment and nasties.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, if only this were French absinthe from 1910... The colour goes from green to a beautiful golden brown, but the taste is still exquisite.

Paul

[desperance.livejournal.com]

*envies*

[pennski.livejournal.com]

We had a bottle of Grandpa's rhubarb wine that was found in a cupboard. It was at least 16 years old and tasted like a good sherry.

Did you take the plunge?