MUSEUM FINDS STASH OF VALUABLE WINE

A museum at a New Jersey university knocked down a wall and made a shocking a discovery – a stash of wine up to 221 years old. Officials at the Liberty Hall Museum at Kean University knew there was a wine cellar behind the wall, but they had no idea of what they would find when they tore down the plaster wall as part of a renovation project. (Historical note: Liberty Hall museum was the home of William Livingston, member of the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration and the first Governor of New Jersey.) They found three unopened wooden boxes that contained more than 50 bottles of Madeira wine from 1796. The labels on the bottles indicate the wine was imported from Portugal and rebottled by Robert Lenox, a millionaire wine importer from New York who died in 1839. The bottles could be worth up to $20,000 each. Experts said the wine in the sealed bottles could still be drinkable.
* But would you pay $20,000 to find out?
* What we need is a spendthrift millionaire idiot with an expensive wine habit. Get Johnny Depp on the phone.
* Meh. I was expecting a cask of amontillado and a skeleton in chains.
* It’s believed Lenox rebottled the wine so he could save it for Betty White’s 21st birthday party.
* They hid the wine behind the wall in the first Governor’s mansion. It’s the same way they have to hide food behind a wall in current Governor Chris Christie’s mansion.