Shipwreck Champagne is a thing now – let’s get wrecked!

Shipwreck Champagne is a thing now - let's get wrecked!

The recipe to create great bubbles has been pretty much the same for centuries, but an accidental discovery recently has created a buzz in the industry. And when there are new ways with champagne, we love to hear about it.

Back in 2010, the cellar master for Veuve Clicquot, Dominique Demarville, got what he assumed was a prank call. What would you think if someone told you 168 bottles of some of the world’s oldest champagne had just been found in a shipwreck in the depths of the Baltic Sea?

Soon enough, Dominique was sniffing, swirling and sipping the 170-year-old bubbles. He found them to be sweet and fresh – although some other tasters also noted a whiff of “wet hair”. Yummy!

Apparently the cool, dark Baltic created perfect conditions for preserving the champagne. So of course, Veuve Clicquot have now gone about recreating the conditions to see what they can create. They’ve sunk 350 bottles of their best in the Baltic Sea, which they will retrieve and analyse over a period of 40 years.

Presumably we won’t be seeing that down at Dan Murphy’s any time soon.

 But in the spirit of the Shipwreck Champagne, we thought we’d share a mutinously delish champagne cocktail.

Named after Fletcher Christian, the sailor who led the Mutiny on the Bounty in the 1700s, this cocktail takes the classic combo of champagne and vodka and adds a Pacific twist.

Shipwreck Champagne is a thing now - let's get wrecked!The Fletcher

Ingredients

  • 35 ml vodka
  • 25 ml lemon juice
  • 15 ml lemongrass syrup (recipe here if you need one)
  • sprig of basil leaves
  • 2.5 ml Yellow Chartreuse
  • Champagne

Directions

Combine the first four ingredients together.

Shake with ice and strain into chilled champagne flutes.

Top up with champagne and garnish with a basil sprig.

Recipe originally from Cool Hunting.

Written By

Carolyn is the editorial director of Champagne Cartel and a freelance writer. In her spare time she is a long-distance runner, peanut butter enthusiast, and single mum to three incredible humans.

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