Swedish divers investigating a ship wreck in the Baltic Sea have found 30 bottles of champagne, produced in the XVIII century.
Divers believe that they have stumbled upon the remains of a cargo ship that carried the Russian Empress Catherine II’s presents from the French King Louis XVI.
The find is truly unique, it is the oldest sparkling wine in the world, and is perfectly preserved and has not lost any of its taste during the long years spent in the darkness of the deep sea.
"It was amazing... it has a very sweet taste, you can sense the aroma of oak and the very strong smell of tobacco and there are very small bubbles", says one of the divers Christian Ekstrom who tasted the contents of one of the bottles.
According Ekstroma "with a 98 percent probability" one can be sure that the wine belongs to the world famous luxury brand Veuve Clicquot. The age and origin of the sparkling wine and in particular the characteristic shape of the bottle points to this fact.
Currently the unusual finding of the Swedish divers has been sent to France for examination. As the Agence France Presse reports the start date of production of "Widow Cliquot" is considered to be 1772.
All the bottles from the first batch were aged at least 10 years.
Thus, it appears that the elite alcohol from the bottom of the Baltic Sea could have been made no earlier than 1772 and no later than between 1788 and 1789, when production in France was temporarily interrupted because of the chaos prevailing in the country at the beginning of the French Revolution.
If the assumption of divers and experts is correct, then the price of each of the bottles they found is about 68 thousand dollars.
Currently, the most seasoned wine champagne in the world is from the sparkling wine company Perrier-Jouet which has been stored since 1825.
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