NEWS

Champagne sells for $156,000 after 170 years under water

Eleven bottles of some of the world's oldest champagne uncovered from the bottom of the Baltic waters are auctioned for more than $156,000, with a single bottle of 200-year-old Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne for $18,600.

AFP reported that the organizers of the auction, which was held in Finland this week, got less than half what they had hoped.

"We are quite happy about the money raised although we expected a new world record," Rainer Juslin, an Aaland provincial government official, told AFP.

In 2010, divers exploring the wreck of a schooner sunk in the Baltic waters between Finland and Sweden discovered a total of 162 bottles of champagne. The bottles were part of the booty from a shipwreck dating from between 1825 and 1830. Of these, 79 were drinkable.

The nearly 200 year old champagne auctioned off this week were in such perfect condition because they were lucky to land horizontally, under pressure, at a low temperature and in the dark.

In 2011 a bottle of Veuve Clicquot raised from the same shipwreck was auctioned for a record-setting $37,000.

Source: Foxnews

Philippines most likely would also have a lot of bottled wines buried on our seabeds. If we only protected critical shipwreck sites in our territory we may also find hundreds of champagne bottles. There were hundreds of Spanish ships which sunk during the times of the American invasion. So, if we can only limit the unlicensed divers to get near into these identified spots then this could be a huge money generating business for our government. Of course, if that happens we should be hopeful too that our government officials will not pocket the money that will be generated out of it.