Bubbly

In Finland, two shipwrecked bottles of champagne dating back to the 1840s were auctioned off today along with some rare bottles from Veuve Cliquot's cellar.

swedish wine expert sampling the champagne

picture courtesy of globalpost

One of the bottles went for an astonishing €33,000.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is fourty-four thousand dollars! (!!!)  Yes, the "sale of the champagne bottles will go to charitable causes…improving the quality of water in the seas,” but really?  A year's worth of outrageous Georgetown tuition for a bottle of 170-year-old champagne?  Does it really taste that much better after nearly two centuries?  Needless to say, it was a new world record in the history of champagne sales.

The purchaser is said to be a Singaporean investor.  Again, this goes to show the growing purchasing power coming out of the Far East, and the desire of these new millionaires to invest their money in 'cultured' luxury products, such as wine and champagne, which is traditionally where wealthy Europeans spent their money.  This trend has been observed in China for quite some time now, and this purchase at the Finnish auction demonstrates once again that there is little limit to where money can be spent nowadays.

So, who wants some Barefoot Bubbly?  It evokes sandy beaches, though sans shipwreck.  For that $41k, I can get almost 6000 bottles of this lovely stuff...