100 bottles of champagne found in 19th Century wreck in the Baltic Sea

[JohnS]

Finding ancient wrecks, or alternatively, past failed expeditions, which reveal a trove of preserved wine or spirits always seems to garner cultural interest. And why not? The question is quite simple, "Is the find drinkable?" In the case of wine or champagne, I would opine that the answer would be, "most likely not if the bottles are well-aged over 100 years".

Anyway, there's some interesting articles below on the latest discovery...

100 bottles of champagne found in 19th Century wreck

Lauren Turner - BBC News

When divers in the Baltic Sea first saw the wreck on the sonar, they thought it was a fishing boat.

But when they went to investigate, they found a 19th Century sailing ship, "loaded to the sides" with champagne, wine, mineral water and porcelain.

They counted more than 100 bottles of champagne in the wreck, off the coast of Sweden.

And now Tomasz Stachura, of Polish diving group Baltitech, believes the shipment could have been destined for a Russian tsar.

Baltitech, which specialises in exploring shipwrecks in the Baltic, described the find as "treasure".

Mr Stachura, leader of the team, said: "I've been a diver for 40 years. From time to time, you see one or two bottles.

"But I've never seen crates with bottles of alcohol, and baskets of water, like this."

The find was made about 20 nautical miles (37km) south of the Swedish island of Oland.

Two divers had said they would do "a quick dive" but then were gone for nearly two hours.

"So we already knew that there was something very interesting on the bottom," Mr Stachura added.

The clay water bottles, showing the brand name of German company Selters, helped them date the wreck to 1850 to 1867.

While champagne would be of more interest to many today, mineral water was an exclusive product "treated almost like medicine" which "only found its way to royal tables", said Mr Stachura.

"Its value was so precious that transports were escorted by the police."

Mr Stachura told the BBC he believes the goods could have been heading for the table of Russia's Tsar Nicholas I - who is reported to have lost one of his ships in the area in 1852.

"That would explain why the ship had this cargo - which was all very exclusive," he said.

"Usually, when we find wrecks the cargo is very cheap."

He thinks the ship was heading across the Baltic to either Stockholm or St Petersberg - which would again tie in with the theory.

"A dive itself only takes about 20 minutes," he said. "But then diving into the archives is what can be more interesting.

"In the future, maybe we will know more about this wreck."

As for the champagne - and prestigious mineral water - Mr Stachura believes both would be drinkable today.

For now, the treasure is staying where it is, with underwater archaeologists called in to assist. Swedish authorities have been notified, and administration also has to be done before it can be brought to the surface.

"It had been lying there for 170 years so let it lie there one more year," said Mr Stachura.

Wine writer Henry Jeffreys, author of Empire of Booze, said: "Champagne was generally a lot sweeter in the 19th Century.

"And if it was going to the Russian market, they liked it very, very sweet. Russia was the biggest market for champagne then. In London, they preferred it drier."

Brandy was sometimes added to champagne back then, he said. This, along with the sugar, would have helped with preservation.

And the conditions - 58m underwater, in the cold and dark - were perfect for the bottles.

"If you're going to leave champagne for 150 plus years, the bottom of the sea is a really good place," said Mr Jeffreys.

Depending on the state of the corks, the champagne could still be "palatable", he added - even though it's likely to have lost its fizz by now.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c51y85ern11o

[JohnS]

Pop the Cork? A Shipwreck Brims With Unopened Sparkling Wine

Polish divers think they have found cases of Champagne on a 19th-century merchant vessel that sank off Sweden.

Bottles resembling those used for Champagne discovered on a 19th-century shipwreck in the Baltic Sea off the Swedish coast.Credit...Tomasz Stachura/Baltictech

By Amelia Nierenberg, Reporting from London, July 25, 2024

The Baltic Sea floor is full of secrets.

Untold thousands of sailors have died beneath its cold waves, some lost to battle, some to weather and rocks. With them sank their ships — and their treasure.

This month, a Polish diving team slipped below the sea’s surface to check out a small wreck, just a few miles off Sweden. A first pass revealed a small, seemingly unremarkable merchant ship about 58 meters (190 feet) beneath the surface. But Tomasz Stachura, who leads the Baltictech diving group, had a hunch.

The next morning, he returned. This time, he found crates and crates of what appeared to be Champagne, along with wine and porcelain, almost as if the ship’s cargo had been headed to a party.

“We realized that this was a kind of treasure,” he said. He took photos and cleaned the labels, but they were illegible. However, the shape of the bottles suggested that they contained Champagne, he said. Looking closer, he saw bubbles. “It came to me that, perhaps, they are drinkable.”

The wreck itself is hardly novel: Some 100,000 sunken ships dot the Baltic seabed, said Jim Hansson, a maritime archaeologist at the Vrak Museum of Wrecks in Sweden.

But finding Champagne would be a marvel. “It’s not so common,” he said, between dives with the Swedish Coast Guard.

Wine and porcelain was discovered along with what looked like Champagne bottles, almost like the ship was heading to a party.Credit...Tomasz Stachura/Baltictech

Sparkling wine may have been even more of a luxury than it is today in the mid-1800s, which is when Mr. Stachura thinks the ship may have sunk. (An archaeologist analyzed bottles of mineral water, a relic of an earlier health food craze, from the wreck, and said the labels were from 1850 to 1876.)

It is not the first time that alcohol has been found aboard a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.

In 2019, cases of cognac were found on a Swedish steamship that had sank in 1917 after being attacked by a German submarine in World War I. And in 2010, divers found bottles of Champagne, some of which appeared to have been bottled before 1830.

“I wouldn’t call them pleasurable drinks,” said Essi Avellan, a Champagne expert in Finland who tasted some of the bottles from that wreck found in 2010. “But, of course, it’s like drinking history.”

The drinkability all depends on how well it was sealed, said David T. Smith, a British drinks writer and consultant who once tasted a shipwrecked gin — with unexpected seawater notes. (“Disgusting.”)

“I don’t know, necessarily, how good it would taste,” he cautioned, of the recent discovery of sparkling wine.

On the other hand, the sea could act like a preservative, Ms. Avellan said: No oxygen can come through the cork. “It would probably taste more youthful than a wine that had been aging at the winery,” she said.

The water itself is also cool and dark, just like a wine cellar. (It’s pressurized, too, which is good for sparkling wines like Champagne.) And the salinity is lower in a sea than in an ocean, so wrecks are better preserved.

The sea could act like a preservative, Essi Avellan, a Champagne expert, said: No oxygen can come through the cork.Credit...Tomasz Stachura/Baltictech

“It’s a frozen time capsule,” said Johan Rönnby, a professor of maritime archaeology at Södertörn University in Sweden, who may research the wreck with Mr. Stachura.

For now, the wreck — and the divers — are in a holding pattern. Mr. Stachura reported the find to Swedish authorities. Now, he is waiting for permission to work with maritime archaeologists like Dr. Ronnby to conduct underwater research and, possibly, targeted excavations of the cargo. Approvals may take some time.

For now, the ongoing research is happening on land. Mr. Stachura thinks he just might have identified the ship as one that Czar Nicholas I of Russia lost in 1852. Right time, right route, right client profile.

Eventually, perhaps, he may taste the sparkling wine himself.

“If some expert says it’s drinkable?” he said. “Yes, yes, why not? It would be nice to try what people would drink 170 years ago.”

Amelia Nierenberg is a breaking news reporter for The Times in London, covering international news 

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/25/world/europe/baltic-shipwreck-champagne.html