The Widow Clicquot Treasure 2010
I have my fins, bcd, mask all packed up and I am one foot away from getting on a plane to Sweden after hearing about a find by Swedish divers in the Baltic Sea last week.
According to news reports Swedish divers investigating a wreck at 180 feet deep last week came across 30 bottles of intact champagne produced in the XVIII century. They believe it is the remains of a cargo ship that carried the Russian Empire Catherine – presents from the French King Louis XVI.
This 200-year-old champagne is most definitely the oldest champagne in the world believing to be made by the Widow Clicquot sometime between 1772 and 1788. My first thoughts was that it would be well passed its due by date but according to one of the divers who tasted the buried treasure; “It was amazing… it has a very sweet taste, you can sense the aroma of oak and the very strong smell of tobacco and there are very small bubbles”.
Currently experts in France are examining the bottles and from their age, origin and in particular the characteristic shape of the bottles it is a 98% probability of it belonging to the iconic yellow label of Veuve Clicquot.
Now i personally wouldn’t mind getting my hands on one of those bottles but at a US$ 68,000 price tag (and that’s before its authenticity is officially announced) I may just have to go to Vegas first.
If you haven’t read the book “The Widow Clicquot’ written by Tillar J Mazzeo I would highly recommend it. It’s a fascinating story of how a young French girl came to be one of the richest and most powerful businesswomen of her time and if your anything like me you’ll have a new appreciation for the beautiful elixir made to this day.
“The poet Lord Byron famously proclaimed that lobster salad and champagne were the only things a woman should ever been seen eating” – The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J. Mazzeo. Here, here I say!