If you want to taste the oldest Champagne in the world you'd better hurry - there are only two bottles left.
But the chances of getting your hands on a bottle of Perrier Jouët’s Sillery 1825 are virtually nil unless you are a top wine journalist or royalty.
One of the last three remaining bottles of the oldest wine in the world, verified by the Guinness Book of Records, has just been polished off by a group of international journalists including Serena Sutcliffe and Michel Bettane.
The lucky tasters are reported to have burst into applause as chef de cave, Herve Deschamps, pulled the cork. Much to their disappointment, he didn’t give them an encore.
French critic Michel Bettane said the wine was ‘unbelievable’.
Tasters reported that the wine was heavily oxidized and had lost its sparkle. Sotheby’s Serena Sutcliffe MW had never tasted Champagne this old. ‘It must have been incredibly powerful and extremely sweet when young,’ she said.
The tasting included magnums of Belle Epoque from 1985, 1982 and 1971 and its debut 1964 vintage.
Bettane hailed 1928 as the greatest Champagne vintage of the twentieth century while the 1911 was ‘still young’, according to Sutcliffe.
At the tasting Perrier Jouët opened a series of nineteenth century vintages with the highlights being 1825, 1846 and 1858.
The last King of France, Charles X was crowned in 1825 in Reims Cathedral.
Written by decanter.com staff
