The world's oldest drinkable champagne has been tasted after nearly two centuries under water.
One of the world's foremost champagne experts, Richard Juhlin, who tasted the vintage bubbly said he detected hints of honey and peach.
The vintage champagne, thought to be from the early 19th century, was salvaged from a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea near the Aland Islands, between Sweden and Finland in July.
A total of 168 bottles were raised in the salvage operation, officials of the semiautonomous Finnish archipelago told reporters on Wednesday.
At the time they couldn't identify the brands because the bottles had no labels.
But champagne house Veuve Clicquot said in a statement on Wednesday that experts analyzing the branding of the corks "were able to identify with absolute certainty" that three of the bottles were Veuve Clicquot."
Other bottles examined were attributed to the now defunct champagne house Juglar, it said.
Veuve Clicquot said it used the Baltic route for shipments to the imperial court of Russia.
French champagne house Perrier-Jouet, a subsidiary of Pernod Ricard, has earlier stated that their vintage from 1825 is the oldest recorded champagne still in existence.
Some of the bottles will be sold at an auction, where Juhlin said they could fetch more than £40,000 each.
