Antiques Roadshow expert drinks urine, nails and hair after mistaking bottle for 150-year-old port

“It’s very brown”: The Antiques Roadshow expert thought he was tasting port from the 1840s but the truth was repulsive.

An Antiques Roadshow expert was left red-faced after he drank a 150-year-old bottle of port – only to discover it was filled with urine and rusty nails.

Glass specialist Andy McConnell drew gasps from the show’s audience when he plunged a syringe in the bottle’s cork, which dated back to the 1840s.

Andy McConnell couldn’t resist the opportunity to drink 150-year-old port.

But this was absolutely not port.

Owner John brought the mystery tipple with him to the roadshow in Trelissick, Cornwall, in 2016 after finding it buried in the threshold of his house.

But even he was taken aback when expert Andy tasted some of the dirty liquid despite remarking beforehand: “It’s very brown.”

“I think it’s port – port or red wine … or it’s full of rusty old nails and that’s rust,” he said, clearly repulsed by the taste.

And it has since emerged that Andy was right – about the rust that is.

Speaking to host Fiona Bruce in a recent episode of the long-running BBC show, Andy and John found out that the bottle was filled with human urine along with other unsavoury items such as a human hair.

It transpired, much to the expert’s embarrassment, that the disgusting concoction was put into the house’s threshold as a way of warding off witches.

He later learned the ‘port’ was, in fact, urine with rusty nails and human hair.

No regrets.

“Inside were these brass pins, all of these dating from the late 1840s and the liquid — urine, a tiny pit of alcohol and one human hair,” Fiona explained.

“And a mysterious little creature called an ostracod, which is like a little cockle. So what this was not a bottle of port or wine but a witch’s bottle.

“So buried in the threshold of the house as a talisman against witchcraft, against curses, against misfortune coming into the home. So you glad you tried it?”

Taking the news in good spirits, Andy replied: “It was too much of a good opportunity to miss.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Antiques Roadshow expert drinks urine, nails and hair after mistaking bottle for 150-year-old port