What would be really funny is if it turns out it’s a case of Beaujolais nouveau.
So, my birthday came and went and without fail I got an email from my buddy, wishing me a happy birthday, etc. It’s the only time we get in touch anymore. On our birthdays. I reply immediately but he never responds.
This one was a little different. He never gives me a clue as to what’s going on in his life, except for this time. He told me he didn’t want to miss my birthday but that he rarely has internet access anymore but he found a wi-fi spot but that it was very cold so he could not type for very long. That’s it.
WTF am I supposed to do with that INFORMATION?!
I assume that means he’s homeless. Which, is in the realm of possibilities with him.
So I let that sink in and I opened the boxes of wine.
All Cabs from California. About 2 dozen bottles in all. Half are Berenger, the other half are Silver Oak. The Berenger runs from $100 to $150 per bottle. The Silver Oaks are around $60-$80. Some of the bottles are a couple of years past their best drinking age. Stored in the dark in a climate controlled closet, they may or may not be going off.
I’ve decided to sell them. Whatever money I’m offered I’ll keep to give to my friend. I may keep a bottle to drink to him. Or with him. If I can ever figure out a way to track him down.
…Just wanted to put a closing chapter on the story.
No the closing chapter is your friend’s reaction to your selling his wine, and whether or not he is homeless, and how the wine money changes his life forever!
At that point I’d sell the ones you can get the most for but hold onto 2 or 3 of the others and let him know that each year for the next few years you’ll open one on his birthday and have a spare glass ready for him if he drops by.
A small point. “Climate-controlled”, when referring to wine storage, means something different than climate-control for a dwelling. The mean and median temperature will be lower for the wine and the seasonal spread in temperature (never mind the daily spread) will be a lot less. This will affect the price you can get for the wine, potentially quite greatly, depending on where you live. It may earn you much less money than the enjoyment you would get by consuming the wine yourself.
I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer about this, and when I lived on the Central Coast of California (AKA God’s Wine Cellar), I stored my collection in a central closet. I did have temperature data for that closet though, showing that the temperature swings were fairly mild. And I really wasn’t intending to hold the wine for resale. Had I tried to sell the wine, I would have expected to take a bit of a hit from the price that assumed ideal storage. Do you have temperature data for that closet?
Most auction sites I’ve looked at will be happy to give you an estimate for your wine, but you’ll have to contact them with the particulars.
I need your help.
I can’t tell you what it is,
you can never ask me about it later, and
we’re gonna hurt some people.
Whose car are we gonna’ take?
As much as I disliked that movie, it does put two cubic feet of closet space in perspective, doesn’t it?
You’re a very good friend, and I hope he gets to see that again in the future.
Drink some and save him some.
True. I am jumping to a conclusion based on very few details. I hope I’m wrong with respect to him being homeless. But like I said, I’ve known him for a long time and coping in society has always been difficult for him.
Unfortunately, we live 600 miles apart. I would not even know where to begin looking for him. So getting the money to him will be a huge challenge in itself as well.