Wine geeks will already have guessed what the wines were: madeira, the longest-lived wine of all, and one that, so usefully, remains hale and hearty in an opened bottle for as long as it takes you to finish enjoying it. Nor do bottles need to be stored horizontally in order to keep the cork damp. Bottles of ancient madeira are quite happy to be stood upright forever since, unusually for wine, exposure to oxygen poses no threat.