Bottles of what are claimed to be the world’s oldest surviving beer are displayed. Divers said they found the beer this week while salvaging champagne bottles from a wreck discovered near the Aaland Islands in July.
Photo: Marcus Lindholm, AP

Remember our excitement back in July about a discovery of the world’s oldest champagne in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea? Well, that excitement is back, as divers have just recently found what is believed to be the world’s oldest surviving beer in that same shipwreck. Continue Reading »

When I was a kid, I was intrigued by the metal detector commercial that always ran during cartoons. You all know the one I’m talking about. The pudgy guy who says, “She’s proud of all the weight I’ve lost.” That line, to me, competes for cheesiest commercial line ever, but it wasn’t enough to throw me off the scent of gold bullion lying just beneath the surface of my backyard. The dream eventually faded after digging massive holes in the yard and coming up with nothing, but I’m still captivated with the idea of buried treasure.

You expect to hear about coins, skeletons, and bottles, but fine beverage? Yes friends, some Swedish divers, while exploring a wreck about 200 feet down in the Baltic Sea, found 30 bottles of Champagne. The fizzy stuff is believed to date back to 1780 and was part of cargo headed to those boozehounds, the Russians (one theory is that the Champagne was part of a consignment to Peter the Great sent by King Louis XVI). Continue Reading »