THE WORLD'S oldest Champagne has been at the bottom of the sea for almost 200 years. It still tastes pretty good, writes RICHARD VINES
Two bottles were cracked open yesterday that were discovered in July in a shipwreck, 50 metres below the surface, in the waters south of Aaland, a Finnish- controlled archipelago of 6,500 islands in the Baltic sea.
The Aaland authorities only discovered yesterday while recorking some of the bottles that they contained two varieties of Champagne: Veuve Clicquot and Juglar, an old house now part of Jacquesson.
While 168 bottles were found, many were broken and others contaminated. I was one of a group of journalists allowed to try the two that were opened in the cultural centre in Mariehamn, the islands’ only town.
Both are sweet, as was the custom of the time. The Juglar is deep and rich with notes of orange and raisin, like a Christmas cake. The Veuve is lighter and more floral, with layers of complexity.
Both may be 185 years old. The oldest Veuve Clicquot held by the Champagne house dates back to 1893, said François Hautekeur, a winemaker with Veuve, who is assisting with preserving the Champagne. “We were replacing the corks yesterday and I was hoping we might find ours because Madame Clicquot was selling a lot of Champagne in the Baltic at that time,” Hautekeur said in an interview yesterday.
The sweetness of the Champagne prompted speculation that it might have been headed for Russia, but the location of the shipping lane where the wreck was found suggests Finland is more likely.
While its exact age is not yet known, marine archeologists estimate that the twin-masted schooner on which the bottles were found dates from the second quarter of the 19th century.
Plates on board were manufactured by Rorstrand porcelain factory between 1780 and 1830, the Aaland Board of Antiquities says.
The divers also discovered bottles of what may be the world’s oldest beer.
When one of the Champagne bottles was brought to the surface earlier, the pressure change caused the cork to pop. One diver took a swig from the bottle expecting it to taste of seawater and realised that it was good.
The team drank some from plastic beakers, resealed it and took it to sommelier Ella Grussner Cromwell-Morgan to taste.
“Despite the fact that it was so amazingly old, there was a freshness to the wine,” she told Aalandstidningen newspaper.
“It wasn’t debilitated in any way. Rather, it had a clear acidity which reinforced the sweetness. Finally, a very clear taste of having been stored in oak casks.”
The champagne was so well preserved because it lay horizontally, under pressure, at a low temperature and in the dark. Aaland plans to auction one bottle of each Champagne in coming months and sell others in the future, said official Brit Lundberg. Five bottles will be retained and others might be used in a special blend of Champagne.
“It’s difficult to estimate what the two bottles will fetch at auction in Mariehamn because they are unique and it depends who is bidding,” Champagne expert Richard Juhlin said, adding that they might fetch €100,000 each.
If he’s right, I have just consumed about €10,000 of Champagne in a few minutes. I’m not sure even Keith Richards has managed that.