A 115-year-old bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne, the oldest ever found, has been unearthed in a drinks cabinet in a Scottish Castle, according to the estimable Berry Bros.
The owner of Torosay Castle on the Isle of Mull found the wine in an old drinks cabinet. Veuve Clicquot have confirmed the 1893 bottle is the oldest in existence and it can now be viewed in its visitor centre in Reims, France.
Veuve Clicquot said the bottle was “priceless; it is a one off and therefore unique. We would never consider selling it as it is far too important to us. It is a unique piece of Champagne history.”
Time for Idle to check the attic and the stables for old pieces of brown furniture, possibly even a visit to the clan chief in his lair in the Highlands as well...
9 comments:
One day someone will get pissed and drink it.
Or perhaps a teenage heir will make his first unauthorised foray into the cellar and be tempted to tipple.
They've been making grape juice for millenia ... why do you think there's none dating back to antiquity for us to try ?
Piss-heads and teenagers, that's why !
Well c'mon ! This is the very conclusion this story is crying out for.
A Dell Boy ending to your 'lovely bubbly' article.
I haven't been able to drink Veuve Clicquot since the opening of the LLoyds Building...
We drank one of the Grange bottles at the weekend. Only 11 years old so a bit previous, but it tasted like the Gods had sent it...
That's a pretty pile :-)
A very neat conclusion, E-K. But I suspect this bottle is safe. (And welcome back, old chap)
Glad to hear the standards are being maintained chez lil. Syrah is my favourite grape too. Commander Idle, the pater, has small quantities left of the fabulous 1961 Hermitage La Chappelle and some plutocratic Cote-Rotie. Poetic stuff.
Nice gaff, isn't it. All I will say is somewhere in Angus.
.... perhaps a pilgrimage is called for...although it's a bit eastwards for this west-facing girl..
I doubt it is east of you, lil. Straight line north from Yeovil will get you to Angus.
I spose Scotland leans to the west in general Idle...I think of Ardnamurchan being directly north of here:-)
I have a great sense of direction (luckily because I can't read a map to save my life) but no sense of geography.
While wandering around Borough Market recently, I sidestepped into Vinopolis, and peered at the Scotch collection.
Amazing to see that a 1937 Macallan was locked up behind a bullet proof glass screen.
Probably because the price tag was £7,300.
I made an excuse and left...
If idle and the fair mrs idle make it to Tuscany you and I can break away from the pack and head to the cellar of a fine wine shop in Lucca. Will try and arrange some pics.
I was staying with a French family in Menetou-Salon 30 years ago when they broke down a wall in the cellar of the chateau to discover a cache of champagne, gawd knows whan provenance or age, but I was allowed a taste. Being 13 'n all, it might as well have been limeado. Shame.
You did well with your French exchange, Tuscan. I was marooned in a cool damp chateau called Toury-Lurcy which was in the middle of bloody nowhere. The only saving grace was that the Comte was a steward at Vichy races, an hour and a half south.
You can be sure that the Idles will make it to Tuscany.
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