Swedish and worldwide champagne expert Richard Julin tastes a 200-year-old champagne
Posted on 11/17/2010 6:32:34 PM PST by bruinbirdman
MARIEHAMN - Wine experts Wednesday popped the corks of two bottles of champagne recently salvaged from the bottom of the Baltic Sea, where they had lain in a sunken ship for nearly 200 years.
On stage in front of some 100 journalists and wine enthusiasts gathered in the capital of Finland's island province of Aaland, they eased the fragile corks from the dark brown bottles — one from the house of Veuve-Clicquot and the other from the now extinct house of Juglar.
Swedish and worldwide champagne expert Richard Julin tastes a 200-year-old champagne
Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/life/World+oldest+champagne+uncorked/3841588/story.html#ixzz15b2y19eI
As the contents were poured into rows of waiting glasses, the aroma was more pungent than any modern wine or champagne: a thick, nose-wrinkling bouquet that could be smelled several metres (yards) away.
"Bottles kept at the bottom of the sea are better kept than in the finest wine cellars," one of the world's foremost champagne experts, Richard Juhlin, told reporters.
Juhlin described the Juglar as "more intense and powerful, mushroomy," and the Veuve-Clicquot as more like Chardonnay, with notes of "linden blossoms and lime peels".
"Madame Clicquot herself must have tasted this same batch," Francois Hautekeur, a Veuve-Clicquot representative, told AFP, referring to Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who reigned over the famous house.
The historic estate announced Wednesday it had discovered that three or four bottles of its produce were found among the 168 salvaged bottles.
Hautekeur and other employees of the winemaker have been assisting Aaland historians in identifying and dating the champagne, which originates from the second quarter of the 19th century, making it probably the world's oldest.
"For everyone at Veuve-Clicquot, it's like winning a championship," Hautekeur said.
The extravagance was part of a push by the tiny autonomous Aaland province to turn the sudden attention garnered from the sunken treasure into a marketing blitz for tourism.
The deputy head of the Aaland government, Britt Lundberg, announced that the the province planned to auction off one bottle of each make.
Juhlin told AFP that either bottle could fetch 100,000 euros (135,000 dollars).
Following the auction, Aaland plans to mix the shipwrecked champagne with younger vintages and sell them.
The idea doesn't horrify Juhlin, who says that most of the bottles are not in mint condition, and could be mixed to impart the old flavour to a new blend.
However, Riikka Alvik, from Finland's National Board of Antiquities, told AFP before the event that she had hoped the Aland authorities would have treated every bottle as a museum piece.
"We would never have just auctioned off museum objects like that," she said.
In the crowd Wednesday, the diver who discovered the precious cargo when verifying the existance of a shipwreck, Christian Ekstroem, watched as others drank what he salvaged.
He had already tasted his share straight from the bottle right after bringing it up to the surface.
"I said, let's taste some seawater. But it wasn't seawater after all," he said.
Ekstroem gets no official compensation for the find, but he, like many Aalanders, says he hopes the international attention will put the province on the tourism radar.
"I was talking to a guy from Veuve-Cliquot who said that's a very good story, but . . . where is Aaland?" Ekstroem said, grinning.
I drank a bottle of this kind of swill when I was in high school and my tongue was paralyzed the next morning. I swore I’d never drink again. When I was finally able to get my tongue to touch the roof of my mouth again, I forgot what I had sworn.
There is a lesson in there...somewhere...
Let me just say "ugh!"
What was the expiration date on that?
That was eloquent, HTB.
Howya, Frank? Your namesake has twelve dientes malditos now. Last Sunday, I wouldn’t give him the microphone to shout, “I’m a baby!” so he gave me a devilish grin and said, “Okay, bite!” Fortunately, I was wearing a chiffon scarf, which confused him.
So he’s developing a nice set of choppers, eh? That’s my boy! The tyke makes me proud!
Chiffon scarf? Nice!
Bright pink floral, to perk up my brown dress. We’re having peculiar spring-y weather, which has made my roses bloom, my parsley and cilantro flourish, and my wardrobe get all confused.
We had high winds today that brought down a lot of power lines. I think we are living on borrowed time before the cold weather really sets in.
Early class tomorrow. I’ll be checking back soon. Nice chatting Mrs. Tax! My best to Der Prinze and the family!
Francis X.
We had thunderstorms last night, scared our poor dog. Der Prinz and I both had to hug her to stop her shaking.
Good luck tomorrow! Thursdays here are Spanish choir and Cub Scouts.
My limited experience with whites and sparkling wines is they don’t last too long. I lost some expensive champagnes that I kept cool and in a dark crawlspace after only 10 years. Pretty disappointing when I opened some S Anderson Bruts that I had kept for a special occasion.
They take an awful chance drinking it. Being that old, only God knows what it was made out of and what’s in it now.
And his eyelashes extraordinarily long.
________________________________________________
That man has beautiful eyes.
cachaça
yitbos
The majority of containers metal containers (most likely copper) used lead either in the metal itself or in the solder on the seams. If at any time the wine was in copper kettles the wine would have picked up some lead.
But even so, considering the amount of wine that will be consumed from these few bottles it is a negligible risk.
As far as organisms the only ones to worry about are bacteria which should be long dead from the alcohol. If there were any present the wine should taste bad.
If the cork has failed then the wine would have long ago been replaced by sea water and it would be immediately apparent from color, odor and taste.
I would settle for shot of the whiskey
He’s a brave man. :)
Nice to see you, Francis!
The Cub Scouts have now formed a Spanish Choir! How Catholic!
;-o)
So you like my new shaved head look? I thought the “Mohawk” was a bit much at first, but the warrior ethos just compelled me to do it!
Howz things, kiddo?
Not bad. :) And you?
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