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World's Eldest Drinkable Champagne on sale !

Champagne Schooner
In 2010, Anders Näsman and his team of divers explored a shipwreck in the Åland archipelago in the Baltic Sea (located between Finland and Sweden) and found an incredible treasure.

162 bottles were laid there at the bottom of the sea, 150 ft deep.

Up on the surface, they investigated this amazing cargo! When uncorking the 1st bottle, they were astonished by its characteristic "pop" . This was a champagne bottle, still sparkling!

The name and the whereabouts of the ship are still unknown but it is believed that her destination was somewhere in the west coast of Finland, then a part of the Russian Empire. Until further information, they called the ship "Champagne Schooner".

Champagne salvage and recovery
In a very delicate operation, the Veuve Clicquot Champagne House decided to check each and every bottle , to taste them and re-cork them. This was done under the supervision of notably Dominique Demarville, Cellar Master at Veuve Clicquot's, François Hautekeur, oenologist at Veuve Clicquot's, Fabienne Moreau, Veuve Clicquot's historian, Richard Juhlin the internationally renowned champagne expert.

They identified 145 champagne bottles thanks to the markings on the bottom of their corks, of which 79 bottles were finally fond drinkable and of a great quality. 11 of them are offered for sale in June.

The mark seen at the bottom of the cork was registered by the Clicquot House in 1841, which means that the bottles cannot have been corked before that year. On the other hand, they found remains of strings on the bottles, used to keep them sealed. We know that the wire muzzles were developed in 1844 and were the only means used to seal bottles after 1850, so that they did use strings any longer after 1850. We can them assume that the bottles have been filled somewhere between 1841 and 1850.

A cellar at the bottom of the sea
As surprising as it may seem, the conditions to keep the bottles at the bottom of the Baltic Sea were quite ideal:
- The pressure at the bottom of the sea, around 5 bars, is equivalent at the one inside the bottle (due to the carbonic dioxide which makes the bubbles!) so that their was no effort exerted on the cork which remained still in its location
- The Baltic Sea is not a very salted one, and the corks were not corrugated by their stay in the water
- The temperature and the darkness allowed the wine to age quietly in dark and cold waters around 4 to 6 °C
- The carbon dioxide in the bottles helped to keep the high aromatic freshness of the wine for 200 years!

This makes these bottles quite exceptional. One of the first to taste it was local sommelier Ella Grüssner Cromwell-Morgan, who found a bouquet of "very ripe fruit, tones of golden raisins and a clear aroma of tobacco", adding "despite the fact that it was so amazingly old, there was a freshness to the wine. It wasn't debilitated in any way, rather it had a clear acidity which reinforced the sweetness". In fact, according to the way people used to like wines in these times, they are sweeter than the ones we commonly drink nowadays. The residual sugar has been measured at about 140 g/l, but it appears to be splendidly well balanced by the remaining acidity.

An auction of treasures
Åland's government has finally chosen Artcurial Briest Poulain F.Tajan to auction 11 of the drinkable bottles, 6 of Juglar, 4 of Veuve Clicquot, and 1 of Heidsieck. The Veuve Clicquot Champagne House added 17 prestigious bottles from its cellars to complete the sale.

Laurie Matheseon and Luc Dabadie, the wine experts at Artcurial Briest Poulain F.Tajan have organized the auction. "Each bottle has its individual tasting note and comment, a rare gustatory testimony of the very high quality of XIXth century champagne production. It is very exciting for us to be part of this adventure offering such authentic collectors items for sale" said Laurie, adding "It's a great honour for us to have been chosen by the Åland's government for this amazing champagne auction!"

According to the experts, there are no special recommendation about the way you will drink this historical wine after buying it: you can keep it your cellar as another champagne, and drink it also as another champagne, at the temperature you usually like it. Since you will share the bottle you'll buy with some friends, you want to choose them carefully: at 15,000 US $ the bottle, they will be good friends of yours!

Each of the bottle for the sale has its unique archeological reference number and tasting note with comments by Richard Juhling, to be found on the Artcurial website.

The benefits of the sale will go to the charitable marine preservation fund created by Åland's government.

The auction will take place on Friday, June 8th at 3 p.m. (UTC/GMT +3) in Mariehamn, capital of the Åland islands.

It's quite an opportunity to discover these islands in the middle of Spring, with the Midnight Sun!More info on :
http://www.visitaland.com/en/facts/champagne
http://www.artcurial.com/aland/en/
http://www.museum.ax/museum/champagnegaleasen_in_english.pbs

You may consult the full catalogue of the auction sale: http://www.artcurial.com/

The wine experts at Artcurial Briest Poulain F.Tajan, Ms Laurie Matheson and Mr Luc Dabadie can be reached for information about the wines or the sale, for an absentee bid or information about over the phone bidding, by: tel 33 (0)1 42 99 20 20, fax 33 (0)1 42 99 20 22 or email : vins@artcurial.com

You can also use the online Artcurial Live Bid platform on Artcurial's website www.artcurial.com


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