An antiques expert recently learned that the “vintage” drink he’d consumed during an appearance on a television program in 2016 was actually urine.
Andy McConnell, a globally recognized glassware specialist and author, appeared on BBC TV’s “Antiques Roadshow” in 2016 and had a taste of a dark liquid he believed was either a vintage wine or port.
“How brilliant!” McConnell said at the time as he extracted the liquid out of a bottle dated from the 1800s.
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“I think it is port or red wine. It’s one or the other. Or, it’s full of rusty old nails and that’s rust,” he said.
In an episode that aired Sunday, “Antiques Roadshow” host Fiona Bruce brought McConnell back on the program to reveal what exactly was in the 200-year-old bottle.
“Last time you were together, John and Andy, was in Trelissick. You brought along this bottle in the house. It was buried in the threshold,” Bruce told McConnell.
McConnell defended his decision to taste the mystery liquid by saying it was “too good an opportunity to miss.”
“I was always the naughty boy at school,” he said.
Bruce informed McConnell that a researcher from Loughborough University had examined the contents of the mystery bottle and made a grim discovery.
“You thought it might be port or wine. That would have been nice. In actual fact – you said it tasted really rusty,” Bruce said.
“Inside were these brass pins, all of these dating from the late 1840s. Then the liquid – urine, a tiny bit of alcohol, and one human hair.”
A less-than-thrilled McConnell replied: “Lovely.”