Teacher's Gifted Wine Now Vintage
Bottle has appeared at tombola and end-of-term giftings for two decades.
A bottle of cheap wine that was originally given to a teacher as an end-of-term gift has been declared a vinatge… without ever leaving the school.
In 1993 the bottle of 1993 Tiède Lavasse was given to Mrs Valarie Plumbeecot by then-pupil Alison Uttertucker as a thank you for all she’d done for her that year, having been told by her Mum she had to take it because everyone else would be doing the same.
Alison’s then Mum, who is now her current Mum, said:
“We got it the night before from Safeways. I told my husband to get a bottle of something that had been reduced by a few quid, so it had been good once but definitely wasn’t expensive now.”
Owing to the rules surrounding alcohol at school, Mrs Plumbeecot had to hide it under her desk until break-time, where she took the white wine, along with several other barely drinkable bottles home.
SHOCKED
At that year’s school Christmas fete, Mrs Uttertucker said she was “shocked” to discover the same bottle sitting on the tombola table.
“I was shocked!”
The Mum-of-2 was at the fete with her son, 31-year-old Jefferson Uttertucker. Although we should point out, he wasn’t 31 at the time.
“I bought a ticket for the tombola out of curiosity and small change. I didn’t win the bottle back though.”
But just because she didn’t win the bottle that day, that isn’t where the story ends. Much as you wish it was.
Because that very same bottle once again appeared at this year’s school fete, some twenty years on.
PRICELESS
Mrs Uttertucker explains:
“Our granddaughter now goes to the same school our children went to. In fact, when she was born my son named her after my favourite singer. So this year I took her to the school fete, and when I saw that bottle on the tombola table, I actually shrieked in surprise. Poor little Boy-George jumped out of her skin.”
Although she didn’t win the prize, Mrs Uttertucker discovered the reason behind it’s reappearance.
After it was won at that tombola 20-years ago, the bottle was gifted to another teacher at the end of the year. That teacher put it back up up as a prize in the next tombola. The winner re-gifted it to another teacher and it’s just gone on ever since.
One of the Dad’s won it this year and when I told him the story, he asked a wine expert about it. He said it is now priceless.
We approached the same wine expert about the bottle of 1993 Tiède Lavasse who told us he didn’t say it was priceless; he said it wasn’t worth anything and wouldn’t give us a price for it.