Last  July we posted about divers finding intact bottles of champagne, believed to date from between 1782 and 1788, in the hold of a shipwreck on the Baltic seabed.   In November, a bottle of the “world’s oldest champagne” was opened and tasted by experts who judged it to be quite palatable.   Earlier today, two bottles of the shipwreck champagne went on auction in Finland.   Despite expectations that each bottle might sell for as much 100,000 euros (approximately $140,000), the winning bids were 30,000 euros ($43,500) for a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and 24,000 euros for a bottle of Juglar.    This morning some sources were enthusiastically suggesting that the champagne might go for “140 million dollars a bottle,” apparently adding three zeros to the earlier $140,000 estimate.

While not meeting the previous expectations, the $43,500 price for the Veuve Clicquot may set a new record according to the Acker Merrall & Condit auction house, who conducted the sale in the town of Mariehamn. The previous record was 42,000 dollars.  The money is to go towards maritime history and environmental projects in the Aland Islands, located between Sweden and Finland.  Experts are still trying to determine the identity of the ship, which some believe was headed for Russia and the court of the czar.

World’s Oldest Champagne in 170-Year-Old Shipwreck Auctioned for $78,400

Collectors have been paying higher prices for Champagne, especially for prized vintages, said Juhlin, who had forecast that the bottles might fetch 100,000 euros, 10 times the minimum price of 10,000 euros. The second lot, containing vintage Veuve, fetched 30,000 euros. Bidders applauded at the Veuve price, given by the same Singapore-based Internet bidder who minutes before gave 24,000 euros for a bottle of Juglar.

The bottles were sold in Mariehamn, capital of Aaland, a Finnish-controlled archipelago of 6,500 islands in the Baltic Sea, where divers discovered the precious cargo in a previously unknown shipwreck.