Something is bothering me about this episode. If the guy died on Tuesday (acc to the medical examiner), and the brother didn't get home till Sunday, then he was dead in that wine cellar for 5 days, with no air conditioning or dehumidifier (turned off by the killer) in California. The body would have been decomposing and smelling, no?

Yes, that is something I guess we have to ignore. The body would have stunk. This is one of my favorite episodes but it leaves me asking other questions also.

As others have asked, what does having spoiled wine prove? To me it only shows that the AC was off in the wine cellar. It does not prove that the brother was in the cellar. Even if it did it does not prove that Adrian killed him.

Also, I don't quite get Columbo's apology to Carsini. When Columbo calls him from the secretary's house he makes it sound as if he had been harassing Carsini and says he is glad that Carsini did not report him to his superiors. Yet, Columbo had been very polite to him and he did not badger Carsini. It t seems to me he made very little accusations if he did at all. The last time I saw that episode I thought that somehow scenes were missing from my DVD.

Still it is a great episode due to the real and understandable relationships between the characters, and that the acting in this one was fabulous, at least to me.

This is really covering very old ground, but...

There are some clear plot holes in this episode. However, we're not told when Carsini's brother actually died. It might have taken a while to suffocate (if it were plausible to do so) in a room of that size. Based on the discussion of the 'empty stomach', there's some indication that it took a little while. Carsini's reaction when switching the air conditioner back on gives the impression that the air is somewhat stale.

We're asked to believe that under no circumstances would Carsini have allowed the wine to be spoiled except for something as important as covering up a murder. The point is, when Columbo finds out, it's enough to make Carsini confess.

The apology, whether authentic or not, is Columbo's way of setting up the restaurant scene.

I do remember seeing Adrian look up at the ceiling as he returns to the body in the vault, possibly as if he's been overcome by a bad smell? Well, no, probably not... But this also reminds me of Try And Catch Me, where the nephew dies after just one night (did I remember that right?) in Abigail Mitchell's safe, with the killer jetting off to New York once again. Surely a man could survive for longer than that without food or water?

One more question. If the wine cellar door opened so easily from the inside (as Adrian demonstrated to Columbo), why couldn't the brother just have left when he woke up? It looked like only his wrists were tied together, not that he was strapped or chained to anything. What am I missing here?

Old ground indeed.

This could very well be old ground but obviously people are interested. There are also new forum reader who are curious about topics that have been covered but do not have the time to search the entire forum. I imagine that those who do not like going over covered ground can start new threads.

Gee, thanks for straightening the obvious out, but anyone with half a piece of working brain can research the answers without rehashing the same tired old topical material here. I mean, come on, do you you actually believe that these queries are posted by NEW contributors to this forum? If you do, then you're thought process is as limited as the global interest in this topic.