What to do with a load of booze.

[Blankiefan]

Apart from the obvious, is there anything we can do with a load of booze? DH and I don't drink much so weve got a decade's worth of gifted booze kicking around. We decided to put it all in the garage as its taking up valuable kitchen cupboard space.

We knew there was a lot but getting it all out in one place shocked us. There are

• 2 bottles of 12yo Glenfiddoch
• 1 bottle burboun
• 4 bottles various vodkas
• 10 bottles of red wine
• 4 bottles white whine
• 4 bottles of champagne (including a boxed Rose Moet)
• 4 bottles prosecco
• 4 random cavas/fizzy plonk

I reckon there's around £400 worth - all unopened.

We'll probably get through or regift the champagne and prosecco eventually. We can pass on the fizzy plonk to the PTA when there's another school fair. But what about the rest? Would people buy it on Facebook / Gumtree? I believe foodbanks don't take it. And it'd be weird to try to give it to friends (outside of normal gifting times which are rare in our crowd).

I was gifted a bottle set of red wines at Christmas by a customer at work, I’m not classy enough to drink wine so I went round the office and asked everyone who liked wine to pop their name in a pot and I did a mini raffle- everyone loved it! You could do that? Obviously you won’t make any money though but not sure how you can unless you wanted to raise money for charity instead
Otherwise gift them to people as birthdays occur and think of it as money saved.

This is the worst idea ever! I can just imagine teenage me finding that box and having a mega party

Only if left unattended, the box could be put out whilst in the garden so could be kept an eye on from a distance although people can now meet outdoors so it’s less of an issue.

I'd just give it all, bottle by bottle to local raffles. When we're given alcohol we don't want we just give it to local stuff. Our library, school, community centre and lots of local charities do raffles, tombolas etc.

My in laws have a huge cupboard full of stuff they don't drink (they do drink but they save all the nice stuff for best- unfortunately there have been 3 graduations, a wedding, 2 babies, multiple 'big' birthdays, retirements etc and no occasion is important enough) so we'll end up with all of it in the future. The local tombolas will have a field day!

Depending on the age/vintage of the whiskey and bourbon you might be able to make a good amount of money selling them. Same for the wines. You should check some wine and alcohol reselling sites for collectors.

School tombola

I find champagne goes off. I don’t drink at home and wouldn’t drink a whole bottle anyway so it’s completely wasted, end up throwing it away.

People give it because a) they won’t accept that I don’t want presents b) they don’t put any thought at all in - not even enough to choose something that will keep.

Our local hospice collects bottles for the 'Jolly Trolley' so that the patients can have a tipple in the evenings if they so wish. Just a small bit of comfort and normality for them.

Perhaps you could ask your local if they do the same?

I'll send you my address!

Champagne, Prosecco, wine, beer, and spirits don’t go off. That’s the reason why auction houses are able to sell 200 year old bottles and archeologists recently found an ancient Egyptian beer that was still drinkable.

Alcohol going bad only happens due to bad storage. This means leaving it directly in the sun or in extremely hot places or in improper vessels. OP’s alcohol has been sitting unopened in her kitchen for up ten years and hopefully not in direct sunlight. It’ll be fine.

Some wines are made to last, some aren't. Chances are that the prosecco just won't be nice to drink now if it is years old.

That's not a question you see often on MN.

We had 20 year old champagne we were given go off and that was stored in a dark place and turned occasionally.

Second giving it away to charity raffles or friends etc, you'll just have to remember who gave it to you in the first place!

Spirits will be fine still but wines might not.
I used to give for raffles/ tombola when the DC were at school . Now I offer it to people I think might drink it eg the grown up DC , chap who helps in the garden. Having read this, maybe we should have a cocktail party this summer.

Just put it up on Facebook: your local friends and family will take it off your hands.