Oldest Bottle
In July 2008 an unopened bottle of Veuve Clicquot was discovered inside a sideboard in Torosay Castle, Isle of Mull, Scotland. The 1893 bottle was in mint condition, having been kept in the dark, and was the oldest bottle known to exist. It is now on display at the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin visitor centre in Reims and is regarded as priceless.
In July 2010, a group of Finnish divers found 168 bottles from the 1830s aboard a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea off the coast of the Åland Islands. The bottles were initially claimed to have been produced between 1782 and 1788. They were sent back to France for analysis. Shortly after this, the bottles were traced to a now-defunct champagne house Juglar. In November 2010, it was reported that the wreck indeed included Veuve Clicquot bottles as well. Veuve Clicquot stated that experts checking branding of the corks "were able to identify with absolute certainty" that three of the bottles were theirs. The other bottles examined were attributed to Juglar.
On 17 November, the local government of the Åland Islands announced that most of the bottles are to be auctioned off.
In January 2011, further info about the Åland bottles was released. Ninety-five of them were identified as Juglar, 46 as Veuve Clicquot and at least four as Heidsieck.
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—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
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—Samuel Fuller (b. 1911)