Ancient champagne from 1780s found on shipwreck in Baltic Sea
Divers discovered what might be the world’s oldest drinkable champagne in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.
After tasting one bottle, they claim it tastes ‘fantastic.’
Seven Swedish divers discovered the bottles of champagne on July 6 off the Finnish Aaland Island, mid-way between Sweden and Finland. About 30 bottles are thought to be aboard the ancient sunken ship, sitting at a depth of about 200 feet…
According to Sky News, the champagne is “believed to be from the house of Veuve Clicquot, founded in 1772 and possibly part of a consignment sent by France’s King Louis XVI to the Russian Imperial Court.”
If confirmed, this will be the oldest champagne still drinkable in the world, due to ideal conditions of cold and darkness. The oldest recorded champagne still in existence is a bottle of Perrier-Jouet from 1825, but this latest discovery is believed to be from the 1780s.
Key to ancient carpet’s magic was bugs, plants
There really is a magic carpet, you know. It doesn’t fly, but it can let your imagination soar.
So, imagine this. The year is 1949 and Russian archeologist Sergei Rudenko comes upon an ancient tomb during an archeological dig. No treasures were to be found, grave robbers having long ago absconded with them. But in the corner lies a carpet, probably judged to be of no value by the thieves. Rudenko can’t believe his eyes when he examines the find. The brilliantly coloured carpet has been perfectly preserved by the Siberian cold! He knows it is old, but not until the fabric is radiocarbon dated does the archeologist realize that he has come upon the earliest known carpet, dating back to roughly 500 B.C.!
It boggles the imagination that 2,500 years ago, artisans managed to produce brilliantly coloured threads of wool and silk despite lacking any formal knowledge of chemistry. How did they do it? Bugs and plants, that’s how!
Aged 9,000 Years, Ancient Beer Finally Hits Stores
Dogfish Head brewery is known for making exotic beer with ingredients like crystallized ginger or water from Antarctica, so it might not sound surprising that one of its recent creations is a brew flavored simply by grapes and flowers. It’s not the recipe that makes this beer so special; it’s where that recipe was found: a Neolithic burial site in China.
Chateau Jiahu is a time capsule from 7,000 B.C., but to hear Dogfish Head owner Sam Calagione talk about what beer was actually like back then, it’s not the kind of thing that makes you say “Hey, pass me another ice-cold ancient ale!”
i saw the champagne story on my Nofriendo Wii news channel this morning and the first thing that came to my mind was tammy would enjoy this history in the news…
my grandfather was very interested in herbs and old skool farmer lore. somewhere around here i have an old book of his on which natural items make what color dyes. rocks, minerals and metals used to be used too. the most famous of which is lapis lazuli for ultramarine blue.
Wow, how do I get me some of that? Yum! It will be interesting to see what it goes for at auction. I think I would have to sell my house:(
some wines definitely do improve over time- but they have to be stored correctly . the type of grape , which harvest and the vintage all come into play. champagne is the rare white wine that is marvelous ‘fresh’ or aged. however, because champagne can only come from one region in france and is a massive part of the economy, most houses encourage the drinking of it often not the storing of it indefinitely so can be cagey with comments about the aging and hording their product. that people think of champagne as only for special occasions fuels this coyness.
i am one of those who thinks the moon is in the sky tonight– let’s have champagne. the cat still has a tail and pointy ears- time for champagne.
portugese port is considered near eternal- things don’t start getting good until 25 years on. mostly red wines are known for their ability to age- such as bordeaux- because they have tannin which acts as a preservative. as the tannins are leeched from the wine with age, the other flavors come forward and are expressed in a more complex fashion. dessert wines like riesling also age well.
i never thought much of aging champagne until i was given a vintage bottle of dom pérignon. at first it was like drinking air then at the back of the tongue all the flavors bloomed forth. it was a wild ride. since then i can’t get away with the cheapo champagne anymore. when palin is elected and we’re through removing the Os from all the government owned keyboards and paving over michelle’s anti-victory garden, it’s vintage champagne, crackers and cheese all around.
Wow! Drinking and Diving really do mix afterall!
LOL!
This is the drink of general Zaroff, the killer Cossack in “The Most Dangerous Game.”
I think the champagne tasted great because they were expecting a gulp of nasty sea water. I love stories like this! It’s nice to hear stories of real men and women still doing great things instead of the usual political mess we’re embedded in.
Agree completely! Will be doing more like this.