According to Bloomberg News, two almost 200-year-old bottles of Champagne that were found in a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in July, were cracked open on Tuesday. And after almost two centuries and 50 meters below sea level, the Champagne was still good as ever.
The bottles were found in the waters south of Aaland, a Finnish-controlled mass of 6,500 islands in the Baltic Sea. While there were several bottles found in the shipwreck, the only two that remianed in perfect condition was a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, and Juglar, now part of Jacquesson. The bottles were well-preserved becasue they lay horizontally, under pressure, at a low temperature, and in the dark.
Ella Grussner Cromwell-Morgan, a sommelier, received the bottles to taste after they had been opened.”Despite the fact that it was so amazingly old, there was a freshness to the wine,” she said. “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.”
Some of the bottles that were discovered in good condition but have not been corked yet will be auctioned off, while others will be saved or used in a special blend of Champagne, said Brit Lundberg, the official in charge of education and culture in Aaland.
