Ahoy , each year on September 19th we celebrate the International Talk Like A Pirate Day. At Champagne.ax we want to remind the world that the Åland Maritime Museum has one of the few real Jolly Roger pirate flags still remaining. However, the museum is currently closed for remodelling and you have to make do with this virtual display. Arrrr!

No. 7 of FINE Champagne Magazine features two interesting articles of interest to Champagne.Ax readers:

• Shipwrecked Champagne Uncorked by Richard Juhlin, pages 74-75
  Richard Juhlin tells about the hard work of having to taste an estimated six million of shipwrecked champagne in just three days.
  During the three days all 145 recovered bottles were recorked and Richard Juhlin graded each bottle. Sixty bottles were graded “tradable good” to “outstanding”. About one-third of the bottles were graded in the middle-tier. These bottles might be used as reserve or dosage wine. The last third was undrinkable.

• Champagne Treasures from the Deep by Essi Avellan MW, pages 76-79
  This article tells the story from the initial dive up until the first auction.

Champagne Treasures from the Deep

Richard Juhlin & Shipwrecked Champange

You can download the FINE Wine Magazines app from iTunes and read this issue for free:
http://itunes.apple.com/fi/app/fine-wine-magazines/id443907294?mt=8

The local government has decided that next year’s champagne auction is to be held on June 8th at which an even larger number of bottles might be sold. This is the day before the Ålands Island’s 90th autonomy day.

Additionally more of the organisation regarding the auction shall be handled by people external to the government. Attorneys-at-law DKCO has been hired to come up with a solution for how to organise the work concerning the champagne shipwreck, the world’s oldest champagne, and the world’s oldest beer.

Source: local newspaper Ålandstidningen 6 July 2011.

Part 8 of the Finnish-Swedish- television show Vrakfeber features footage  from the salvage of the world’s oldest champagne bottles during the summer of 2010. The video is in Swedish only.

Republished with permission from YLE. Go to http://arenan.yle.fi/ohjelma/26891 to view all episodes of Vrakfeber.
Update: this clip has been removed due to copyright concerns from the rights holders. Champagne.ax asked for and was granted permission to post the clip, but later received a request for its removal.  

VTT two days ago issued the following press release with mostly bad news for beer lovers:

VTT examined the first bottle of beer from Åland shipwreck

 

27.06.2011

VTT has examined one of five bottles of beer salvaged last summer by divers from the wreck of a ship that sank an estimated 170 years ago in the Åland Islands. The examination yielded a wealth of detail about the beer, even indications of how it was brewed. The research will continue by examining another bottle.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland was commissioned by the Government of Åland to study the composition of the shipwreck beer and identify the type of yeast used to brew it. The aim of this project was to study what early 19th-century beer was like and whether its production process could be reverse-engineered and the beer replicated.

The study involved an analysis of the physico-chemical properties of the beer and microbiological and DNA analyses of the beer, bottle and cork. In particular, the aim was to isolate any living microbes found.

The bottle contained a liquid that was a beautiful pale golden colour, identified as beer because of the presence of malt sugars, aromatic compounds and hops typical of the beverage.

The beer in the bottle examined has not stood the test of time well, and it was contaminated by salt from sea water.

Dead yeast cells were discovered in the beer, indicating fermentation that took place long ago. Live lactic acid bacteria were found in the beer. Especially in earlier times, lactic acid bacteria were often present in beer fermentation alongside brewing yeast.

It would appear that the contents of the bottle examined by VTT were in a worse condition than those of the bottle that broke during the course of the dive.

The examination will continue with the opening of a second bottle retrieved from the wreck. This may yield new findings. The goal remains the discovery of living yeast cells.

Source: http://www.vtt.fi/news/2011/06272011_shipwreckbeer_aland.jsp

The world’s oldest champagne bottles from lots 16 and 17 sold for  the following prices:

• Lot 16 – The Tsar’s Treasure: Shipwreck Champagne
  Juglar
  Estimated Vintage, early-mid 1800′s
  1 Bottle
  Sold for €24,000
  Buyer: Anonymous

• Lot 17 – The Tsar’s Treasure: Shipwreck Champagne
  Veuve Cliquot
  Estimated Vintage, early-mid 1800′s
  1 Bottle
  Sold for €30,000
  Buyer: Anonymous, same buyer as Juglar

Tip: check out the Champagne.ax Facebook page and stay updated with everything related to the world’s oldest champagne.If you missed the auction you still have a chance to win a bottle of the world’s oldest champagne.

View the auction of the world’s oldest champagne live starting at 15.00 GMT+2 (8am New York Time / 3pm Local Åland Time / 8pm Hong Kong):

Live feed from Åland24.

Acker Merrall & Condit and The Government of Åland has launched a website dedicated to the champagne auction 3 June. The website brands the auction as “The Tsar’s Treasure: A Historic Shipwreck Champagne Auction”.

The auction features 17 lots. The first 15 are bottles provided by Veuve Cliquot. Lots 16 and 17 are as follows:

• Lot 16 – The Tsar’s Treasure: Shipwreck Champagne
  Juglar
  Estimated Vintage, early-mid 1800′s
  1 Bottle
  Starting at €10,000
• Lot 17 – The Tsar’s Treasure: Shipwreck Champagne
  Veuve Cliquot
  Estimated Vintage, early-mid 1800′s
  1 Bottle
  Starting at €10,000

Head over to http://www.ackeraland.com/ and “submit your bids now, for your chance to own a piece of history and the oldest champagne for sale: The Tsar’s Treasure”.

Tip: check out the Champagne.ax Facebook page and stay updated with everything related to the world’s oldest champagne.If you don’t happen to have €10,000 or more you still have a chance to win a bottle of the world’s oldest champagne.

The local governments decision to give one bottle of the shipwreck champagne to local gambling company PAF last week did not go unnoticed. Diver Christian Ekström who brought the first champagne bottle to the surface and was the one to break the news to the world strongly opposes last weeks giveaway.

According to local newspaper Ålandstidningen Mr. Ekström believes that the use of the champagne as a marketing ploy for online gambling will ruin the attraction the champagne currently has achieved.

Furthermore, Mr. Ekström also brings up the question about a reward for the divers and why the divers have not received any kind of formal recognition for their discovery. According to Mr. Ekström a reward would be used to start a fund to support maritime archaeological activities in the Baltic Sea. The way the local government has acted will encourage divers not to report future findings, Mr. Ekström said.

Mrs Britt Lundberg, minister of cultural affairs, said that the local government does not believe that the ability for any lucky person to win a bottle of the world’s oldest champagne would in any way affect the auction price.

What do you think?

Source: Ålandstidningen 23 May 2011.

Local gaming and gambling company PAF – a wholly owned subsidiary of the Government of Åland – has been given one champagne bottle.

PAF will launch a new game titled Treasure Diver related to the champagne shipwreck and the champagne finding during the champagne auction 3 June. The jackpot is one bottle of the shipwreck champagne which will be served during a picknic of a lifetime in the Åland Islands.

For a chance to win one bottle of the world’s oldest champagne you should head over to PAF.com »

The value of one bottle of the world’s oldest champagne has been estimated to be in the 50.000 to 100.000€ range. The starting bid at the auction has been rumored to be be 50.000€ and the bottles have been insured at 100.000€ each.