Divers have found 30 bottles of champagne, believed to have been made between 1772 and 1785, in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Aland, an autonomous part of Finland.
The bottles, thought to predate the French Revolution, are now being analyzed in France.
If their age is confirmed, they will replace the current recordholder Perrier-Jouet from 1825, as the oldest drinkable champagne in the world. It is believed the bottles were produced by Veuve Clicquot.
The diver, Christian Ekstrom, found the bottles while exploring a shipwreck; he opened and drank one with his colleagues, “It had a very sweet taste, you could taste oak and it had a very strong tobacco smell. And there were very small bubbles,” he told the Reuters.
Wine experts estimate that each bottle is worth about 500,000 Swedish crowns,($78,500 USD).
The bottles, thought to predate the French Revolution, are now being analyzed in France.
If their age is confirmed, they will replace the current recordholder Perrier-Jouet from 1825, as the oldest drinkable champagne in the world. It is believed the bottles were produced by Veuve Clicquot.
The diver, Christian Ekstrom, found the bottles while exploring a shipwreck; he opened and drank one with his colleagues, “It had a very sweet taste, you could taste oak and it had a very strong tobacco smell. And there were very small bubbles,” he told the Reuters.
Wine experts estimate that each bottle is worth about 500,000 Swedish crowns,($78,500 USD).
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