Tuesday, 11 February 2025
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An unusual bottle of wine was uncorked at the Food and Wine Festival in Charlestone, West Virginia, USA. The 150-year-old beverage was recovered from the wreck of a steamer that sank at the end of the Civil War.
Unfortunately, the sommeliers Larry Stone and Paul Roberts, who did the honours, were sorely disappointed when they tested a century and a half old liquid. It turned out that its bouquet was far from expectations and was dominated by sulphur and salt water aftertaste with a touch of petrol.
“I’ve dealt with wines from sunken shipwrecks before and I know they can be wonderful,” said Paul Roberts
The liquid in the old bottle was milky yellow and contained mostly sea water. Interestingly, after testing it for alcohol, it turned out that… the alcohol concentration was 37%!
The intact bottle was one of five found on the wreck of the steamer Mary-Celestia, which tried to evade a naval blockade of southern states during the Civil War. The vessel sank in 1864 under mysterious circumstances off the coast of Bermuda and it was only 150 years later that she revealed some of her secrets to a team of underwater archaeologists.
Historians on the subject claim that the steamer was setting off from Bermuda with supplies for the Confederates when it unexpectedly ran into a reef and sank in just six minutes! To this day, it is unclear whether the accident was an accident or whether the crew were victims of sabotage.
Brothers Philipe and Jean-Pierre Rouja, were diving on the wreck in 2011, shortly after the remains of the steamer were exposed by one of the winter storms. They found an intact bottle of wine in the locker of one of the petty officers, which was located in the bow section of the ship. Subsequent dives found more wine bottles, perfume bottles, women’s shoes, hairbrushes and buttons.
“Finding all these objects intact after such a long time was a real surprise for us, ” reports Philipe Rouja
Source: uk.reuters.com, telegraph.co.uk
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