Ocean Yields Most Expensive Drinkable Champagne
Posted on 20 July 2010 by LynThomas in Society
Divers recently discovered what is thought to be the world’s oldest and most expensive drinkable champagne, in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea. They tasted the one bottle they’ve brought up from 200 feet, before they even got back to shore.
They believe the bottle is from the 1780s, as part of a cargo destined for the Russian court. About 20 bottles are thought to be aboard the sunken vessel.
Swedish wine expert Carl-Jan Granqvist said each bottle could bring $68,000 “iI the corks are intact and the sparkling drink is genuine and drinkable.”
A 1787 Chateau Lafitte, a Bordeaux was sold at Christie’s auction house in the 1980′s for 105,00 pounds, ($160,00). When the buyer, Christopher Forbes, proudly displayed his investment, the ancient cork shrank and fell into the bottle, of what proved to be the most expensive bottle of vinegar. The bottle of wine was supposedly once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
In 2009 a charred bottle of beer that had survived the explosion of the Hindenburg zeppelin, in 1937, was supposed to have been auctioned off for between $7,500 and $20,000. Much of its original contents had evaporated. “You wouldn’t want to drink it – it is probably quite putrid to taste,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.
A New Jersey fireman, Leroy Smith allegedly found 6 bottles of Lowenbrau and a pitcher intact at the scene of the crash. He is reported to have given 5 other bottles away to his colleagues.
Hindenburg Survivor
In 2002, an Australian company called Wineflyers International announced it had sourced and sold six bottles of wine from the Titanic to “a high profile customer in Asia.”
A Swedish freighter Jonkpoing was en route to Russia in 1916, carrying a full cargo of alcohol ordered by Tsar Nicholas II, when she was sunk by a German torpedo. The wreck was found in 1997, where a salvage company reportedly recovered 2000 bottles of 1907 Heidsiek & Co. The Burgundy and Cognac had not survived 82 years of submersion.
Laurent Davaine, Director of Exports at Heidsieck, said “The Champagne still shows an amazing balance and a beautiful golden hue with the effervescence still present.” As of late 2008 most of the bottles had already been sold at auction, but there were still ten bottles for sale at the Ritz Carlton in Moscow, priced at $35,000 each
The MV Republic was a proto-Titanic – the largest operating luxurious cruise ship of her day, owned by White Star Lines until she ran into another boat. In 1981 divers found a 1898 Moet & Chandon that still had “a robust, hearty taste with a pale color similar to ginger ale.” Unfortunately, after spending $10,000 per day to bring three hundred bottles to the surface, Wine Spectator reported that Christie’s “found no bottles in condition to be auctioned off.” They had all been “invaded by sulfur-producing bacteria that travel at the bottom of the sea,” according to Michael Davis, Vice President of Christie’s wine division.
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