Flashermac Posted July 18, 2010 Report Share Posted July 18, 2010 Divers have found 30 bottles of champagne thought to pre-date the French Revolution on the Baltic seabed. When they opened one, they found the wine - believed to have been made by Clicquot (now Veuve Clicquot) between 1782 and 1788 - was still in good condition. The bottle - whose shape indicates it was produced in the 18th Century - has now been sent to France for analysis. If confirmed, it would be the oldest drinkable champagne in the world. Diver Christian Ekstrom was exploring a shipwreck on the Baltic seabed when he found the bottles. He took one to the surface, where he opened it and tasted it with his colleagues. "It was fantastic," he told the Reuters news agency. "It had a very sweet taste, you could taste oak and it had a very strong tobacco smell. And there were very small bubbles." According to records, Clicquot champagne was first produced in 1772 but was laid down for 10 years, the French news agency AFP reported. Production was disrupted after the French Revolution in 1789. The wine found on the seabed was perfectly preserved because of the conditions of dark and cold on the seabed. If the bottles do come from the 1780s, that would make them around 40 years older than the current record-holder, a bottle of Perrier-Jouet from 1825. Wine experts estimate each bottle would fetch around 500,000 Swedish kronor (£45,000; $69,000) at auction. The bottles were found off the coast of Aaland, an autonomous part of Finland. The local authorities will decide what is done with the shipwreck - and the champagne. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted July 18, 2010 Report Share Posted July 18, 2010 There was a batch of that stuff found on a ship wreck years back, all sorts of wine, champagne and cognac believed to be on a ship going to supply Napoleon or something. All I ever find when scuba diving is trash... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted July 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2010 Are you diving in the ocean or a klong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted July 18, 2010 Report Share Posted July 18, 2010 Ocean, I'd dive the Klongs if I knew there was money there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted July 18, 2010 Report Share Posted July 18, 2010 Ocean, I'd dive the Klongs if I knew there was money there! Plenty of loot near the piers! Lots of folks have lost stuff jumping on and off the boats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rchapstick Posted July 18, 2010 Report Share Posted July 18, 2010 made by Clicquot (now Veuve Clicquot) To quote NG, "Vive La Clit!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous God Posted July 19, 2010 Report Share Posted July 19, 2010 I was thinking that's pretty cheap when considering other wines etc go for more than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted July 19, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2010 Ocean, I'd dive the Klongs if I knew there was money there! I remember Thais panning for gold in a klong in the mid 1980s - Klong Thewet, I think. It seems the gold shops nearby had swept out the spilled gold dust along with the dirt, at a time when gold was cheap. By the 1980s, you could make more than the minimum wage by panning the muck for gold dust in the klong for a few hours each day. Sometimes they'd find an old amulet or something else they could sell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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