#prev next * Contact * Feedback * Submit * Subscribe Keyword, Author, or DOI ____________________ GO GO Advanced Search » Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America * PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Skip to main page content * Explore more than 100 years of PNAS content! * * Science Sessions: The PNAS Podcast Program * Current Issue * Archive * News & Multimedia * Authors * About * Collected Articles Special collections highlighting noteworthy articles + Colloquium Papers + Commentaries + Core Concepts + Cozzarelli Prize + Editorials + Feature Articles + Front Matter + Inaugural Articles + In This Issue + Inner Workings + Letters and Replies + News Features + Opinions + Perspectives + PNAS Classics + PNAS Plus + PNAS Portals + Profiles + QnAs + Retrospectives + Science and Culture + Significance Statements + Special Features + Sustainability Science * Browse by topic + Agricultural Sciences + Anthropology + Applied Biological Sciences + Applied Mathematics + Applied Physical Sciences + Astronomy + Biochemistry + Biophysics and Computational Biology + Cell Biology + Chemistry + Computer Sciences + Developmental Biology + Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences + Ecology + Economic Sciences + Engineering + Environmental Sciences + Evolution + Genetics + Geology + Geophysics + Immunology and Inflammation + Mathematics + Medical Sciences + Microbiology + Neuroscience + Pharmacology + Physics + Physiology + Plant Biology + Political Sciences + Population Biology + Psychological and Cognitive Sciences + Social Sciences + Statistics + Sustainability Science + Systems Biology * Early Edition + All Early Edition + Highlights from Early Edition * Front Matter * Go to PNAS Homepage * > Current Issue * > vol. 112 no. 19 * > Philippe Jeandet, 5893–5898 [CROSSMARK_Color_horizontal.svg] Chemical messages in 170-year-old champagne bottles from the Baltic Sea: Revealing tastes from the past 1. Philippe Jeandet^a,^1, 2. Silke S. Heinzmann^b, 3. Chloé Roullier-Gall^b,^c, 4. Clara Cilindre^d, 5. Alissa Aron^c, 6. Marie Alice Deville^e, 7. Franco Moritz^b, 8. Thomas Karbowiak^c, 9. Dominique Demarville^f, 10. Cyril Brun^f, 11. Fabienne Moreau^f, 12. Bernhard Michalke^b, 13. Gérard Liger-Belair^d, 14. Michael Witting^b, 15. Marianna Lucio^b, 16. Damien Steyer^g, 17. Régis D. Gougeon^c, and 18. Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin^b,^h,^1 1. ^aLaboratoire de Stress, Défenses et Reproduction des Plantes, Unité de recherche Vignes et Vins de Champagne, Research Unit 4707, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, 51687 Reims, France; 2. ^bResearch Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry, Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany; 3. ^cInstitut Universitaire de la Vigne et du Vin - Jules Guyot, Université de Bourgogne/AgroSup Dijon, UMR Procédés Alimentaires et Microbiologiques, 21000 Dijon, France; 4. ^dEquipe Effervescence, Champagne et Applications, Groupe de Spectrométrie Moléculaire et Atmosphérique, UMR CNRS 7331, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, 51687 Reims, France; 5. ^eChampagne Deville, 51380 Verzy, France; 6. ^fChampagne Veuve Clicquot, 51100 Reims, France; 7. ^gTwistaroma, 68021 Colmar, France; and 8. ^hAnalytical Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Muenchen, 85354 Freising, Germany 1. Edited by Jerrold Meinwald, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and approved March 24, 2015 (received for review January 13, 2015) Significance The composition of 170-y-old champagne samples found in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea constitutes a remarkable and unprecedented example of long-term combinatorial chemistry, which can occur in such sealed 750-mL microlaboratories. Multiple analytical tools, including metabolomics, metallomics, and sensory analysis, were combined to characterize the molecular diversity of these champagnes having aged in close-to-perfect conditions at the bottom of the sea. The analyzed champagnes retained intrinsic features allowing us to shed light on the winemaking practices in use in the middle of the 19th century. Therefore, this archeochemistry approach enabled us to rewrite a piece of our cultural heritage. Abstract Archaeochemistry as the application of the most recent analytical techniques to ancient samples now provides an unprecedented understanding of human culture throughout history. In this paper, we report on a multiplatform analytical investigation of 170-y-old champagne bottles found in a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, which provides insight into winemaking practices used at the time. Organic spectroscopy-based nontargeted metabolomics and metallomics give access to the detailed composition of these wines, revealing, for instance, unexpected chemical characteristics in terms of small ion, sugar, and acid contents as well as markers of barrel aging and Maillard reaction products. The distinct aroma composition of these ancient champagne samples, first revealed during tasting sessions, was later confirmed using state-of-the-art aroma analysis techniques. After 170 y of deep sea aging in close-to-perfect conditions, these sleeping champagne bottles awoke to tell us a chapter of the story of winemaking and to reveal their extraordinary archaeometabolome and elemental diversity in the form of chemical signatures related to each individual step of champagne production. * metabolomics * archaeochemistry * champagne * wine Footnotes * ↵^1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: philippe.jeandet{at}univ-reims.fr or schmitt-kopplin{at}tum.de. * Author contributions: P.J., R.D.G., and P.S.-K. designed research; S.S.H., C.R.-G., F. Moritz, B.M., M.W., M.L., and P.S.-K. performed research; P.J., S.S.H., C.R.-G., C.C., D.D., C.B., F. Moreau, D.S., R.D.G., and P.S.-K. analyzed data; and P.J., S.S.H., C.R.-G., C.C., A.A., M.A.D., T.K., G.L.-B., M.L., D.S., R.D.G., and P.S.-K. wrote the paper. * The authors declare no conflict of interest. * This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. * This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1500783112/-/DCSupplemen tal. Freely available online through the PNAS open access option. Online Impact * Add to Facebook Facebook * Add to Twitter Twitter * Add to Google+ Google+ * Add to CiteULike CiteULike * Add to Delicious Delicious * Add to Digg Digg * Add to Mendeley Mendeley What's this? * [mChemistry.gif] In This Issue This Week in PNAS: In This Issue PNAS 2015 112 (19) 5857-5858; doi:10.1073/iti1915112 * Extract * Full Text (HTML) * Full Text (PDF) * Figures Only This Issue Cover * May 12, 2015 vol. 112 no. 19 Masthead (PDF) Table of Contents * prev prev article * next article next __________________________________________________________________ Don't Miss Thinking of submitting your next paper to PNAS? Learn tips in our PNAS tutorial videos. __________________________________________________________________ Article Tools Article Alerts 1. Alert me when this article is cited 2. Alert me if a correction is posted 3. Email this article to a colleague Export Citation 1. Download to citation manager Save for Later 1. Add to My File Cabinet Request Permission 1. © Request Permission Share 1. + Add to Facebook Facebook + Add to Twitter Twitter + Add to Google+ Google+ + Add to CiteULike CiteULike + Add to Delicious Delicious + Add to Digg Digg + Add to Mendeley Mendeley What's this? __________________________________________________________________ Published online before print April 20, 2015, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1500783112 PNAS May 12, 2015 vol. 112 no. 19 5893-5898 Classifications * Physical Sciences + Chemistry * Biological Sciences + Agricultural Sciences * Open Access __________________________________________________________________ Access 1. » Abstract 2. OA Full Text (HTML) 3. Full Text (PDF) 4. PDF + SI 5. Figures Only 6. Supporting Information 7. In This Issue __________________________________________________________________ Figures 1. Fig. 1. Fig. 1. Browse All Figures Other Articles Citing This Article 1. Load citing article information 2. Citing articles via CrossRef 3. 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