When one is a connoisseur, people naturally expect you to know your stuff and intrigue them with how extensive your knowledge is with your craft.
Unfortunately, no one is perfect and sometimes this little fact is brought to light in the most embarrassing ways possible. In this case, it wasn’t just embarrassing, it was outright gross.
Andy McConnell is a bottle expert and is a regular at the annual Antiques Roadshow. During one such show, he sampled what he thought was some vintage port but actually turned out to be 180-year-old urine. If the thought of drinking some antique urine wasn’t enough to get you all squeamish, it turns out that the whole concoction also came with some rusted nails and some human hair. Is that barf bag starting to look more inviting?
It all happened in 2016 when someone named John brought the bottle to the show. He explained that he had found the antique bottle buried just outside his house. As John was curious about the age of the bottle, he approached Andy to tap his expertise.
Andy guessed that the bottle looked to be from the 1800’s and was quite a find considering it still had its contents.
Anyone else would’ve been leery about taking a sip of an unknown liquid but Andy couldn’t wait and grabbed a syringe which he promptly inserted into the cork to get to the bottle’s contents. He even poured it into a glass and said, “It’s very brown…” You don’t say.
He then added: “I think it’s port… port or red wine… or it’s full of rusty old nails and that’s rust!”
Fast forward to the 2019 Antiques Roadshow where host Fiona Bruce finally revealed to Andy just what he had imbibed that fateful day three years ago.
Fiona said: “Inside were these brass pins, all of these dating from the late 1840’s and the liquid – urine, a tiny bit of alcohol and one human hair.”
She continued: “And a mysterious little creature called an ostracod, which is like a little cockle. So, what this was not a bottle of port or wine but a witches’ bottle.
“So, buried in the threshold of the house as a talisman against witchcraft, against curses, against misfortune coming into the home. So, you glad you tried it?”
Andy quipped: “Yummy. Such good news.”
Then he added: “It was too much of a good opportunity to miss!”
Replaced!