Champagne maison Heidsieck & Co Monopole and grand lobby bar ATLAS collaborates to launch a champagne modelled after the Gout Americain. Yes, the one that was enjoyed on the Titanic when it sank in 1912.

In 1916, a small Swedish transport vessel called Jonkoping carrying 3,000 bottles of champagne destined for the Imperial Russian military sunk to the bottom of the Baltic Sea off the Finnish coast after being torpedoed by a German submarine. That champagne was the 1907 Heidsieck & Co Monopole Gout Americain, one of the world’s most legendary bubblies. It was the same label carried by the Titanic when it sunk back in 1912.

In 1998, some bottles of the Gout Americain was salvaged from the wreck of the Jonkoping. Those bottles – kept in constant cold temperature, pressure, and total darkness – become some of the world’s priciest bottles of champagne. A few found their way to ATLAS, kept in one of Asia’s most extensive collections of champagne in the world. It was affectionately called the “shipwreck champagne”.

But something that precious – it’s S$190,700 a bottle – isn’t quite made for everyday drinking. So Heidsieck & Co Monopole and ATLAS joined forces to recreate it.

The Champagne Heidsieck & Co Monopole Extra-Dry is the result.

Gout Americain, not quite so sweet? Yes, we can.

That said, the new cuvee isn’t quite like the original. People those days preferred their bubblies on the sweeter side. In fact, Gout Americain, or “American taste” in those days clocked in around 110 to 160 grams of sugar per bottle. That’s more than ten times the sweetness of an Extra Brut most people prefer these days. Heidsieck & Co Monopole wisely dialled down the sugar to far more acceptable levels. According to official tasting notes the nose offers crystallised fruit and orange blossom, while the palate reveals a pleasant sweetness.

“Gout Americain is a legendary bottle that screams history, and there’s no better place to serve it than in ATLAS,” says Alice Wee, executive director of Wine Clique, the exclusive importer of Gout Americain under the helm of Vranken-Pommery Monopole group. “It gives us the chance to revisit and experience what the royal courts enjoyed during the turn of the 20th century.”

“It’s also the same cuvee people on board the Titanic were drinking the night before the catastrophic event,” she added.

The non-vintage Champagne Heidsieck & Co Monopole Extra-Dry is exclusively available at ATLAS for the next two years. It costs S$170++ per bottle.

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