The Baltic Sea

Well now, first it was champagne, now it’s beer.. The Baltic Sea seems to be a fully stocked bar in it’s own right. What’s next? A martini shaken not stirred?

Divers have managed to drag up an astounding find. This past Thursday they drudged up the world’s oldest drinkable beer from a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea this past Thursday, just in time for the weekend. This happens just days after efforts began to bring up cases of 200 year old champagne, officials in the area commented.

“We believe these are by far the world’s oldest bottles of beer,” a spokesman for the local government of Åland, Rainer Juslin, said in a statement.

The bottles of beer were discovered in a shipwreck which is though to be somewhere in the viciniy of 200 years old, as divers were just beginning to bring up bottles of champagne, discovered back in July. One question this reporter begs to ask… Is why the heck have they taken so long to start bringing up the bubbly?

The haul, which was found intact on the seabed somewhere around 50 meters down beneath the waves. The find comes from a wreck believed to have sunk off the coast sometime in the 18th century, officials of Aaland have postulated.

“The constant temperature and light levels have provided optimal conditions for storage, and the pressure in the bottles has prevented any seawater from seeping in through the corks,” a statement this Thurday said.

Champagne

“For this wine, time has stood still,” commented chief cellarman of Veuve-Clicquot, after swirling the two hundred year old wine around in his mouth. This spectacular find was found off of Sweden.

A bottle of champagne which is purportedly two hundred some odd years old was found in a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic, it tastes exceptional, however, it is not found the house of Veuve-Clicquot as was previously assumed.

Last month, Swedish divers making their rounds off of Finland, came across 30 bottles of perfectly preserved champagne at a depth of 180 feet. These bottles of champagne may just have been part of a consignment sent by King Louis XVI (of France) to the Russian Imperial Court.

Due to the fact that the corks still had a hint of an anchor logo, experts originally thought that the champagne might have come from the historic Veuve-Clicquot estate, which till this day, is still one of the best brands in terms of champagne.

However, after being put to the test, the firm has said that while it is perfectly preserved, the brew came from the now non-existent Juglar house.

“For this wine, time has stood still,” commented chief cellarman, Dominique Demarville, of Veuve-Clicquot, one of a small number of people who has had the privilege to sample a few millimeters of the discovery.
“It seems to me that it must taste the same as it did when it was made.”

Champagne

Divers have recently uncovered what might just be the world’s oldest champagne (which hasn’t turned to vinegar) in a shipwreck off the Baltic Sea. They celebrated by popping open a bottle even before they made it back to dry land.

Christian Ekstrom, a diving instructor, has said that the champagne is thought to be from the 1780s and was likely on its way to Russia before it met its fate. The origin of the wreck has not yet been determined.

“We brought up the bottle to be able to establish how old the wreck was,” he said at a press conference, “We didn’t know it would be champagne. We thought it was wine or something.”

He went on to say that the diving team was ecstatic when they popped open a bottle after hauling the find up some 200 feet (60 meters) out of the water.

“It tasted fantastic. It was a very sweet champagne, with a tobacco taste and oak,” Ekstrom vividly explained.

The wreck was discovered near the Aland Islands, between Sweden and Finland last Tuesday. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 bottles of the prime bubbly are thought to be aboard the sunken derelict ship.

Ekstrom has said that the age and authenticity of the champagne is beyond refute, however samples have been sent off to private laboratories in (where else?) France for testing. “We’re 98 percent sure already because of the bottle (we found),” he explains.. But then, wouldn’t your judgment be a little off after drinking a bottle of bubbly with some friends?

Stay Tuned for the outcome!

Wonder what that would go for on Ebay?