Hints of yeast, honey; shipwrecked bubbly uncorked

AP ^ | November 17, 2010 | LOUISE NORDSTROM

[ConservativeStatement]

MARIEHAMN, Finland – An accent of mushrooms merged with sweet notes of honey in a sampling Wednesday of what's been billed as the world's oldest champagne, salvaged from a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.

An expert who tasted the vintage bubbly was lyrical, detecting hints of chanterelles and linden blossom.

An Associated Press reporter, who also sampled a bottle, found only a slight fizz and flavors of yeast and honey.

The champagne — of the brands Veuve Clicquot and the now defunct Juglar — was recovered from a shipwreck discovered in July near the Aland Islands, between Sweden and Finland. A total of 168 bottles were raised in the salvage operation, officials of the semiautonomous Finnish archipelago told reporters on Wednesday.

[ConservativeStatement]

[Outlaw Woman]

Fascinating!

[Defiant]

One of the glasses smelled of old hippy and had a hint of nosehair.

[QBFimi]

>> An expert who tasted the vintage bubbly was lyrical, detecting hints of chanterelles and linden blossom.

Wow - this is way above my pay grade. Perhaps the inner circle of the O’Bamanites can weigh in with their opinions.

[Paladin2]

Probably more than a hint of Arugula.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Looks cloudy.

[Sacajaweau]

Very cool....but after you.......

[Sacajaweau]

I assume these were all tested for poison. Sometimes it’s in the container.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

This type of post is just FUN! Thanks.

[CatoRenasci]

The oldest Champagne I've drunk was some '47 Krug in its late 40s. Remarkable - distinctly Krug, toasty, amazing bouquet.

Recently had some very late disgorged (1996 vintage, disgorged 2010) Iron Horse sparking wine that was remarkable as well.

[ConservativeStatement]

You are welcome. I’ll make up for it with an unfunny thread later. :-)

[Outlaw Woman]

Interesting. I’m no expert. What is fascinating to me is the history. Thinking & contemplating on the people that blended the champagne, the bottles and where they were made...etc. It’s all extraordinary and imo, the champagne itself takes a back seat to that.

[RobRoy]

I think they have it at Costco now.

[ClearCase_guy]

I’m no expert, but I imagine it would be interesting to test European wine made before the 1850’s and the Phylloxera problem which required European vines to be altered.

[CatoRenasci]

I’m no expert, but I imagine it would be interesting to test European wine made before the 1850’s and the Phylloxera problem which required European vines to be altered.

There is no question the wines differed according to the experts, though opinion was divided on how significantly. Enologist relatives and connoisseur relatives who had extensive experience with both pre- and post-Phylloxera French, Italian, and Californian wines had a distinct preference for the pre-Phylloxera wines from France and Italy, but thought some of the post-Phylloxera pre-Prohibition Californian were significantly better than the pre-Phylloxera Californian wines.

You might be interested to know that Argentina has significant plantings of Bordeaux varietals that were pre-Phylloxera own rootstock.

The question of appropriate rootstock has come up again in California after experiments in the last 20 years with various rootstocks, including vinifera rootstock, led to new outbreaks of Phylloxera and lots of replanting. There is still controversy over how newer rootstock choices have affected the wines (the new big, fruit-forward style currently popular, but anathema to traditional enophiles).

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	Note: this topic is from 11/17/2010. Thanks ConservativeStatement. There may have been a pinged topic about this before, but hey, cheers. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·