Shipwreck

Divers Find 230-Year Old Champagne

Filed under: Wine

Divers in the Baltic Sea are believed to have discovered a trove of 230-year old Veuve Clicquot Champagne, believed to be the oldest drinkable Champagne ever found.

About 30 bottles are believed to be in the wreck. One of the dive-party's members reportedly opened one and tasted it, saying, "it tasted fantastic."
Swedish wine expert Carl-Jan Granquist estimates each bottle could bring around euro50,000 if the corks are in tact.

The bottles were discovered Tuesday, July 13 near the Aland Islands in the Baltic between Sweden and Finland.

The bottles are believed to be Vueve Cliquot, owned by Moet-Chandon, because of an anchor design on the cork, which the Champagne house used. The identity of the ship has not yet been determined.

Tags: Champagne, moet-chandon, shipwreck, Veuve Clicquot

G.J. Cleverley Offers Bags Made with Leather from a Sunken Ship

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Shoes, Men's Style

G.J. Cleverley, the famed London-based bespoke shoemaker whose famous customers have included Winston Churchill, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart, has come out with a limited edition line of bags made from rare Russian reindeer leather salvaged from a ship sunk over 200 years ago. The precious perfectly preserved hides were recovered by divers from the Danish brigantine Metta Catharina von Flensburg which sank during a storm in England's Plymouth Sound in 1786, according to Robb Report. Tanned using a painstaking 18th century willow bark and birch oil process, the skins have been turned into a limited collection of handmade men's accessories including belts, wallets, a wine carrier, shoe kit, and Gladstone bag (above), priced at about $7,200, a modern interpretation of a satchel once used by well-heeled British hunters. The pieces are available by special order only.

Tags: bag, G.J. Cleverley, G.j.Cleverley, hunting, leather, London, Robb Report, RobbReport, shipwreck, UK

Who Owns The Remnants Of The Titanic?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

The sinking of the Titanic has captured the imagination of the world for decades. Because of that interest anything associated with the ship takes on additional weight. An ongoing legal battle over ownership of the remnants of the ocean liner is currently heating up.

Thousands of artifacts have been recovered from the ship which went down in the north Atlantic in 1912 killing 1,522 people. The artifacts could be worth over $100 million. There have been several voyages down to the ship to recover various items. The company RMS Titanic (RMST) has emerged as the owner of the salvage rights. RMST is considering a seventh dive next year, its first since 2004 although other dives, including one financed by "Titanic" director James Cameron, have taken place. RMST has already recovered 5,900 artifacts from the ship during the first six dives. Legally the company does not own the ship nor the recovered items and it has gone to court in pursuit of limited ownership as a way to make up for the huge salvage costs. RMST shareholders would like the company to be more profitable. An agreement between Britain and the U.S. protects the Titanic as an international memorial and protects the site from unauthorized treasure hunters.

RMST would like to be declared the legal owner of the existing Titanic collection in order to recover some of the costs of salvage which have not been covered by revenues from the touring exhibition which has been shown at various museums. If RMST were declared the owner it could also sell the collection to a museum. If it cannot get the rights, RMST has asked a salvage reward of $225 million.

The US state department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington would like to limit ownership rights and keep the collection as a single entity. Robert Ballard, the oceanographer who first discovered the site in 1985 has come out against repeated tourist dives and salvage operations because he is concerned that these actions are hastening the complete destruction of the wreck. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said that the remaining structure may collapse within the next 50 years.

Source

Tags: artifacts, museum, shipwreck, titanic

World's Most Expensive Champagne at $275,000 a Bottle

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits, Wine

Some vintage 1907 Heidsieck champagne that's been sitting on the bottom of the ocean for the past 80 years is being sold for $275,000 a bottle at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow.

Over 200 bottles of the long-lost, perfectly-preserved bubbly were salvaged from a shipwreck off the coast of Finland, Russian newspaper Komersant reports. At the time of the accident in 1916 the wine was on its way to the Russian Imperial family.

The Ritz-Carlton, where top suites go for upwards of $15,000 a night, is now offering them at $275,000 a bottle, making it the world's most expensive champagne. Sounds like the perfect drink for all those oligarchs.

Tags: Champagne, Heidsieck, Hotels, Moscow, Ritz-Carlton, Russia, Shipwreck