Champagne found on the seabed . . .

[Phil Perry]

WOW,. . .several bottles of champagne have been recovered from a shipwreck in the Baltic sea and it has been reported that the wine is not only still drinkable, but that it is excellent, even retaining it's characteristic sparkle. . . . !

 

The wreck was approximately 350 feet below the surface, where the average temperatures over the past couple of hundred years were around +2 to +4 deg C. . . . very dark ( you don't say ? ) and quite some pressure at that depth. . . ( dunno I've never skindove that deep )

 

Wine specialists have decided that the conditions were conducive to the wine remaining drinkable for such a long time,. The wooden ship cannot be identified, but apparently the consignment of wine was a gift from the French King Louis the seventeenth, to the Royal Court of Russia, . . . they have identified the type of champagne from markings on the corks, as the labels had long since disappeared. Google that King, Louis XVII,. . .and you'll have the approximate date of the shipment,. . . it wasn't mentioned in the report, and I can't be ar$ed really. . . . not being able to afford such luxury liquids personally. . . .

 

25 bottles from the wreck are to be auctioned in the near future, and valuers have suggested that they could reach as much as £20,000 per bottle. There are still many bottles in the wreck, although some of them were destroyed in the turmoil as the ship sank.

 

Wine tasters reported also that the wine is much sweeter than current champagne varieties, which was, we are told, the fashion back in them thar days. . .

 

The Veuve Clicot champagne company have placed some fresh bottles on the seabed approx 300 metres away from the wreck site, and these will be recovered and tested annually to gauge the effect on modern wines.

 

Hic.

 

Phil

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Skindiver's joke apparently ...