Some weeks ago, Finnish divers discovered several crates of two-centuries-old champagne and beer from a sunken ship in the Baltic Sea for nearly two centuries. They then drank some of it because, hey, why not. And, because sharing is nice, Finnish authorities sponsored a public opening and tasting of the champagne last Friday.
The champagne and beer were found in a wreck just off of a Finnish archipelago, Aaland, which demonstrates the dangers of drinking and driving. The theory is that they were making a booze run to Russia, which would explain the sweetness of the stuff – Russians in the 1830s apparently had a taste for champagne with ten times as much sugar as is the norm now. Which I guess makes them the teenager drinking alco-pops of the 19th-Century drinking world.
The authorities at Aaland plan to auction two bottles of the Champagne shortly, and then sell the rest. Given the fact that the bottles are a good hundred years older than anything else privately owned, nobody really knows how much they’ll go for – but one oenologist reckoned they’d go for around $135,000 (ZAR 0.94 million) each. Which works out great for the divers who first found the stuff, because they all took a good couple of $10,000 swigs before handing it over the experts. Chill vibes.
