A bottle of 1825 Perrier-Jouet was the previous record holder for the world’s oldest Champagne. That was until earlier this month when a group of Swedish divers discovered a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea containing at least 30 bottles of Champagne produced between 1782 and 1788. Some samples have been sent to France to confirm their age, after which it will be official.

Incredibly, with the corks still intact, they are still drinking well. Diver Christian Ekstrom described it as “fantastic” after opening one bottle with his colleagues. “It had a very sweet taste, you could taste oak and it had a very strong tobacco smell. And there were very small bubbles.” A local wine expert, Ms Cromwell-Morgan, said the champagne was dark golden in colour and smelled of tobacco, but also grape and white fruits, oak and mead.

At the time the shipment was lost, around 90% of wine from the Champagne region was still and pink, so this really is a special find. It is also thought the consignment was destined for the tsar of Russia, sent by King Louis XVI just before the French revolution. If proven, each bottle could sell for much more than the current estimate of $91,000.

It was the cold and darkness of the depths of the Baltic that preserved the bubbly for so long. It was made by the company that later became known as Veuve Clicquot.