Per festeggiare un evento...speciale !!

Dal sito wired.co.uk un simpatico articolo di Olivia Solon, che riassumo:
il 3 giugno andranno all'asta un paio di bottiglie di champagne decisamente speciali.
Provengono infatti dal carico di una goletta a 2 alberi affondata nel Mar Baltico, presso le Isole Aland, nei primi anni dell' 800 e ritrovata da alcuni subacquei finlandesi nel 2010.
Il nome dell'imbarcazione è tuttora sconosciuto, ma si ipotizza che il carico fosse destinato addirittura allo zar russo a S. Pietroburgo.
Delle 168 bottiglie trovate, ne sono rimaste 145 (una "assaggiata" dallo scopritore del relitto) di cui 2 verranno vendute.
Lo champagne, decisamente d'annata, è di marca Veuve Clicquot, Juglar (non più esistente e fuso oggi con Jacquesson) e Heidsieck. Sono state ritrovate inoltre 5 bottiglie di birra, che verranno analizzate per scoprire qualcosa di più sugli ingredenti, la ricetta e sul ruolo del lievito nella produzione della birra ad inizio '800.
Se avete qualcosa di speciale da festeggiare...
;-)


200-year-old shipwrecked champagne to go on sale
by Olivia Solon

In the early 1800s, a two-masted schooner sank in the Baltic Sea near the Åland islands. In 2010, divers found the ship with its structure largely intact with a cargo hold that was empty apart from 168 champagne bottles. Now, two of the bottles are going on sale.

The champagne dates which has been dubbed the "world's oldest", has been very well preserved in the darkened depths of the Baltic and 145 of the bottles have been deemed drinkable. Diver Christian Ekstrom, who found the loot while exploring the shipwreck, opened one as soon as he had found it and described it to have a very sweet and oaky taste with very small bubbles.

It's not clear what happened to the remaining 23, but one can imagine Christian and his companions insisting that they were spoiled. *Hic*.

After 200 years under water, the corks were in a very fragile state. So the Åland Government consulted cork producer Amorim who advised on the process of replacing the cork stoppers with tailor-made new ones. So far only a few have had their corks replaced, while the majority are still immersed in water to prevent air from spoiling the booze.

After further analysis of the bottles it was discovered that there was an assortment of Veuve Clicquot, Juglar (now defunct and merged into Jacquesson) and Heidsieck from the early 1800s.

Also amongst the bottles were five bottles of a golden, cloudy beer, which Finnish chemists at the VTT Technical Research Centre are analysing to determine the ingredients and possibly the recipe. They are keen to find out what yeast was used because the role of yeast in beer brewing was not fully understood in the early 1800s, according to VTT spokesperson Annika Wilhelmson.

The Government of Åland, which owns the bottles, has decided to auction off two of the champagne bottles in an auction in Mariehamn, Aland on 3 June, 2011. They are expected to attract "record prices", which some have estimated to be as much as 100,000 Euros.

The name of the wreck is still unknown, and so is its destination, but it has been speculated that the cargo was destined for the Russian Tsar's court in St Petersberg. There are no known archived references to the ship's origin or sinking. What we do know is that it was a carvel-built, two-masted schooner measuring 21.5 metres long and 6.5 metres wide. It is hoped that it might eventually be possible to date the wood in the hull using dendochronology, or counting tree rings.

If you have a bit of cash to spare, the auction -- which is run by Acker Merrall & Condit -- takes place at 3pm at the Alandica Culture and Congress Centre. If you can't make it to the Åland islands, you can still bid online or over the phone.