Vino-Club For Wine Lovers
Related Articles
In 2010, a team led by diving instructor Christian Ekstrom found 30 bottles of vintage champagne thought to pre-date the French Revolution on the Baltic seabed.
Still Drinkable
The divers were s exploring a shipwreck when they discovered the bottles. Hoping to date the wreck from the bottle, they took one to the surface. There was no evident dating evidence so they tasted it with his fellow colleagues. Ekstrom stated “it had a very sweet taste, you could taste oak and it had a very strong tobacco smell. And there were very small bubbles”.
Upon examination by experts it is thought to have been produced in the 18th century due to the shape of the bottle. The wine is believed to have been made by Clicquot, now Veuve Clicquot, between 1782 and 1788. It had been kept in such good condition due to the dark, cold conditions on the seabed.
New Vintage Champagne Record
If these bottles are as the experts predict, it would make them 40 years older than the previous record holder, an 1825 bottle of Perrier-Jouet. Since their discovery, they have been analysed at the University of Reims, based in France’s champagne region. The quality of the surviving champagne scored high, it is thought the cork quality used by Veuve Clicquot helped.
