Champagne, Shipwrecks, or Sheer Marketing Genius?
We have never been one for conspiracy theories. However, we cannot help but believe Henri-Louis Walbaum, Florens-Louis Heidsieck’s successor, pulled a fast one on the world a hundred years ago.
Let’s go back in time. The year: 1916. World War I has broken out across Europe. Our location is in Imperial Russia and we are acquainted with Czar Nicholas II. The Czar comes to us requesting champagne. A bit complicated, but not to worry, we have a solution. We contact a neutral country like Sweden, and inform them that we have heard good things about their Swedish champagne company from Jönköping, Sweden. Alas they commission the freighter to deliver several thousand bottles of Swedish champagne and even issues a royal warrant of appointment. Perfect! Problem solved. Parties continue.
Meanwhile back in France, Henri-Louis Walbaum gets news of this arrangement, and he has a stroke of genius. He has figured out a way to make sure the world is still drinking his french eponymously named Champagne house a hundred years from now! He orchestrates a shipwreck so that the Czar will not receive his Swedish champagne.
It was quite the shipwreck; Thousands of bottles of cuvée lost to the ocean floor all because of a ‘inadequate’ “German” submarine. Czar Nicholas II is beyond annoyed at this point. The Imperial Russian parties are ruined. As if we didn’t resent the Axis powers enough for this war! Did they have to sink our champagne too?! Very quickly, larger issues arrive to Czar Nicolas II’s attention. He meets an unfortunate fate, and the war ends. The lost champagne is forgotten by all (except the select few who carry a MAJOR corporate secret at Heidsieck and Co.).
Fast forward to the 21st century, and it is decided that the time has come to “find” the champagne. And so, by some stroke of luck, deep sea divers off the coast of Finland uncover two thousand bottles from the shipwreck. How fortuitous! The world is in awe. What to charge for these perfectly preserved pieces of history? How about $275,000?! Which is exactly what one man paid at an auction at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow.
*Nota Bene: A bottle of Goût de Diamants champagne has been sold for over a million dollars, but that is because the bottle is made out of diamonds. How uncreative.
-Meg Gallagher
