Vintage bubbles

In 1998, divers discovered 2,000 bottles of the Heidsieck Monopole 1907 in the salvaged shipwreck of The Jonkoping, a Swedish schooner, sunk by a German submarine in the Baltic Sea in 1916. Shumit Arun Chanda, founder of Swiss Dreams, an importer of Swiss gourmet products, bought the eight remaining bottles available for worldwide auction at an undisclosed price. (Two bottles, available for purchase at $88,000 each, are available in the cellar of Buyan Restaurant and Bar at Duxton Hill.)

The liquid gems, which were shipped in strong wooden cases had been stored for 82 years in complete darkness, 64 metres below sea level, at a constant temperature of 4°C. Chanda reveals that storage for his own bottles “has been handled very carefully at 4°C in our cellar in Switzerland.” So far, he has popped the first bottle. He says, “As the bottles onboard The Jonkoping were destined for the Imperial court of Tsar Nikolas II of Russia, I chose to open bottle No. 061 at the Russia-Singapore Business Forum 2011 a tribute to its Russian links and to celebrate the astounding achievements of Singapore.  It had the most delightful taste of any alcoholic beverage I have ever tried. It was like a slightly effervescent Sauternes, but creamier, and well balanced, with a dark, deep golden yellow colour and a long and exceptional finish.”