Buried treasure: the story of a century-old Champagne stash

The extraordinary tale of a stash of Champagne that was lost in 1900, found in 2018, and tasted this month – brought to you in pictures.

Picture credit: Pol Roger

Pol Roger lost as many as 1.5m bottles of Champagne – representing around half its stock at the time – after a period of heavy rain caused its underground cellars to cave in during the night on 23 February 1900, burying the fizz in wet chalk and clay.

Picture credit: Pol Roger

Both levels of Pol Roger’s facility on the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay were brought down, while part of its historic cellars caved in. Because it was the middle of the night, no-one was hurt, although Maurice Roger – son of the brand’s founder, Pol Roger – heard the collapse, and said it sounded as though two trains had collided.

Inspecting a remnant from the cellar collapse. Picture credit: Edward Henderson

Then, almost 120 years later, on 15 January 2018, while Pol Roger was beginning the process of building a new packaging facility above the site of the collapsed cellars, the producer discovered a void, filled with broken glass.

Picture credit: Michael Boudot

Over the course of several days of careful digging, Pol Roger found 23 in-tact bottles.

Picture credit: Michael Boudot

Some of which were still full.

Picture credit: Michael Boudot

Pol Roger’s new cellar master Damien Cambres was delighted by the discovery.

Picture credit: Michael Boudot

But even more excited was outgoing cellar master Dominique Petit, who had dreamed of finding this buried stash of Pol Roger since he joined the house in 1999.

Left to right: Laurent d’Harcourt, Dominique Petit, Hubert de Billy, Christian de Billy, and Damien Cambres Picture credit: Michael Boudot

Fifth generation of the Pol Roger family, Hubert de Billy, expressed his mixed feelings about the find. “We are very proud, but it was a dream, a story that the family like to tell, and now it is a fact,” he told db.

Picture credit: Lief Carlsson

The wines were carefully removed, and sealed with wax.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

However, rains then forced the excavations to stop, as the historic cellars 25m below the ground began to fill with water, before resuming digging again in December the same year, and yielding as many as 100 bottles, although not all of these contained the correct level of Champagne.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

Then, on 15 January this year, the void caved in, proving the unstable nature of the historic cellars, and forcing the digging to cease for the foreseeable future.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

On Thursday 10 October db was present as the Champagne house of Pol Roger pulled the first corks from its extraordinary discovery.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

Having entered the historic cellars, db made its way through long tunnels…

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

Until reaching a locked gate, which was opened by Pol Roger CEO, Laurent d’Harcourt.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

The floor was thick with wet clay and chalk.

But this was as far as db could go, despite the modern reinforcements.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

Now it was time to try the finds, which were brought up to Pol Roger’s disgorging room.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

Damien Cambres inspected the first bottle.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

Before Francis, who heads up the disgorging line, began the slow process of extracting the cork from the 120 year old bottle – which took around 20 minutes.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

Thankfully, the wine was in good condition considering its age.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

Back up to the maison, it was time to taste the bottles.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

As one would expect, the wine was a deep amber colour, like aged Cognac.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

Hubert de Billy (left) and Laurent d’Harcourt sampled the wines with db, with d’Harcourt admitting that the exercise was risky, as the wine could have been unpalatable. “You are guinea pigs,” he joked.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

But both wines were in remarkable condition considering they most likely hailed from the late 1890s, and had been on their original corks for around 120 years.

And you can read my analysis of their taste and composition by clicking here.

Picture credit: Edward Henderson

It’s not just historic Champagne that’s stashed in Pol Roger’s facilities. Among the racks of Champagne is this Dodge pick-up, bought by the producer in 1944 after the Americans liberated Epernay, and then used for bringing in the harvest, before being left here, where it has stayed for 60 years. Restoring it will be the next project for Pol Roger.