Salvaged Champagne sets record

A BOTTLE of Veuve Clicquot salvaged from a 19th century shipwreck in the Baltic Sea set a world record for Champagne yesterday when it sold for €30,000 at an auction in Aland, Finland.

It is one of two bottles from a cache of 145 recovered from a two-masted schooner. The Clicquot was sold to a buyer from Singapore after spirited biddingwith an American bidder in Mariehamn, Aland's capital.

The other Champagne, made by Juglar, which went out of business in the early 19th century, sold for €24,000.

Ella Grussner Cromwell-Morgan, a sommelier who lives on Aland and tasted the Juglar, said it was sweet with a crisp acidity. She described it as having "a flowery, young citrus aroma, sort of fruity apricots."

The unidentified ship where the Champagne was found is believed to have been on its way to the court of Tsar Nicholas of Russia.

Experts estimated from the corks and hand-blown bottles that the wines were produced between 1811 and 1831.