For The Love Of Port

From the depths of the ocean to your wine cellar. Spectrum Wine Auctions, Southern California's leading auction house of fine and rare wine, will hold its first sale of the fall 2010 auction season on September 24 including a bottle of shipwrecked Madeira wine dating to the 1800s. The bottle, which is estimated at $1200 was discovered off of the Savannah, Georgia coast by professional diver Bill Kinsey in the late 1970s. The lot comes from a collector who bought the only two bottles from the shipwreck in 1980 at The Heublein Premiere National Auction of Rare Wines XII. He tasted the first one on television and noted that it was fantastic and in perfect condition. The thick mud on the ocean floor protected the bottles from worms and water.

http://www.luxist.com/2010/08/30/shipwr ... t-auction/

Very cool!

Glenn E. wrote:Very cool!

Indeed!

Personally, I'd be wary. Madeira has really crappy corks. The first bottle opened may be good, but that's no guarentee that the others are. Just a tiny defect could spoil the bottle at that depth.

Fun bottle, but price ? I rather use money on a bottle from that time which has been over ground for 200 years, or older than 1800 and recenly
bottled, maybe bid $ 300 for this one as a scuriosity item Don't think anyone will pay that price..

I almost guarantee that someone WILL pay that price. Other bottles that have been reclaimed after years, decades or centuries on the ocean floor have proved favorably in several salvage operations. I have read about Champagne, Madeira, Port, Riesling, Burgundy and Bordeaux all salvaged in this same way and with great results. I think it has more to do with the frigid temperatures in the deep water than anything else.