"Considered the world’s oldest known bottle of wine, 325 AD, Historical Museum of the Palatinate, Speyer, Germany. Author: Following Hadrian CC BY 2.0/ Flickr
Posted on 09/06/2018 10:56:14 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The age of the Speyer wine bottle is epic, estimated at around 1,650 years. Its makers did well by sealing it with hot wax and splashing it with olive oil, which is how the bottle, containing a presumably once drinkable white wine, has maintained the liquid inside it... Microbiologists have recommended not opening the wine and the same opinion was shared by the museum's wine department curator, Ludger Tekampe, who in the past stated that if the bottle were to be opened, "We are not sure whether or not it could stand the shock of the air." ..finding the Speyer Wine in the grave of a Roman noble in 1867, in the Rhineland-Palatine region of Germany... The antique bottle took its name from the city of Speyer, which was located in close proximity to the tomb it was found in. The nobleman, along with his wife, had been buried there with the wine around 350 AD, and archaeologists were utterly baffled when they realized the bottle still contained liquid. To date, the wine is considered the earliest known liquid wine ever excavated from an archaeological site anywhere in the world... the identity of the nobleman... suggests that he was a Roman Legionnaire... A chemist analyzed the Speyer bottle during World War I, but he did not dare to open it and after that, the wine was stored in the German museum in Speyer. While many scientists have hoped to obtain permission to analyze the bottle's contents thoroughly, nobody has been granted one yet.
(Excerpt) Read more at thevintagenews.com ...
"Considered the world’s oldest known bottle of wine, 325 AD, Historical Museum of the Palatinate, Speyer, Germany. Author: Following Hadrian CC BY 2.0/ Flickr
I bet that is some funky grape juice. lol Pretty bottle though.
It doesn’t look good.
No offense, but the contents look nasty.
I don’t drink and I can honestly say that does not tempt to imbibe.
Bottle filled with MYSTERY LIQUID dating back to time of Jesus Christ discovered
That looks like it needs some serious decanting..
I think I’m with you, V_TWIN. I find the bottle more intriguing than the contents. LOL
And after the decanting, a sip, followed by some recanting. ;^)
White wine? Looks like a pale red to me, complete with the “mother”.
Ew. I can see why nobody wanted to open it.
Looks OK to me.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is past its prime. But maybe we just have cultural blinders on.
Oh, I had one of those, I poured that nasty crap out and threw it in the recycling bin.
Oops.
There was an episode of Pawn Stars where a customer brought in a very very old bottle wine. He was crushed when Rick told him the wine was almost certainly no good any more and the only value there was the bottle as a collectable.
And who among us hasn't tried eating the worm in the tequila?.
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