Fact Check: The Truth Behind the $1.4 Million Sale of Wine Allegedly Retrieved from the Titanic

Claim:

A video shows a bottle of wine retrieved from the Titanic wreckage that sold for $1.4 million at auction.

Rating:

On April 30, 2024, online users began virally sharing a video

on

Facebook,

Instagram,

YouTube

and

X,

with a rumor claiming the clip showed a bottle of wine recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic selling for $1.4 million at auction.

The video depicted a gentleman dressed in a formal jacket, gently uncorking a wine bottle encrusted with what seemed to be marine life. Additional clips introduced boxes of wine allegedly also retrieved from Titanic’s unfortunate journey, which collided with an iceberg on April 14, 1912, and descended just hours later in the wee hours of the subsequent day, resulting in the demise of approximately 1,500 passengers and crew.

One of the most viewed renditions of the video amassed close to 7 million views. Tiktok user @momentsgang uploaded the clip on May 1. The caption on the screen stated, “Original Preserved Bottle of Wine Recovered from the Titanic Sold for $1.4M at Auction.” The initial creator of the video remains unverified by Snopes.

“A preserved bottle of wine fetched from the Titanic was sold for a record-setting $1.4 million at auction,” claimed the Tiktok user in the text caption accompanying the video. “The Oceanic Reserve Champagne, manufactured by ‘Maritime Vineyards,’ is among the few intact bottles retrieved from the wreckage, thus making it a highly coveted piece of history. This sale highlights the everlasting fascination associated with the Titanic catastrophe and the value attributed to preserving its memory.”

This rumour has been classified by Snopes as “Miscaptioned.” The video was authentic and did not seem to be tampered with, but it did not portray a wine bottle retrieved from the Titanic being auctioned for $1.4 million. We came across no news stories detailing any such auctions. Furthermore, a Google search for “Oceanic Reserve Champagne” and “Maritime Vineyards” yielded no useful results, indicating that these were not legitimate product or company names.

Our thorough online investigation to uncover the origin of the video didn’t yield any results at first. However, a link we discovered through Google search results eventually led us to the truth.

The banner in the background of the viral video matched a visual design found on SSN01 Classic, a product of the award-winning Seafloor Storage No.1 wine company based in Yantai, China. According to the company’s website, their wine-making technique includes six months of oak aging and an additional 12 months of storage under the sea at a depth of 18 meters (approx 59 feet). The site also states that Golden Times Winery supplies the grapes for this wine and maintains a cap on yearly production at 50,000 bottles. We’ve reached out to the company via their website contact form but have not yet received a response.

Unfortunately, we have not been able to identify the individuals in the video, and the time or location of the recorded event remains mysterious. Puzzlingly, the Seafloor Storage No.1 wine company’s website lists just two blog posts, which are from 2019 and 2020 and describe a China SeaFloor Storage Wine Culture Festival.

Contrary to the circulating video rumor, a genuine discovery of intact champagne bottles was reported at the Titanic’s final resting place, as cited in a 1994 article by the British newspaper Evening Sentinel.

A genuine, still-sealed bottle of champagne was photographed in 2006 at “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.” The picture was credited to Frank Mullen/WireImage.

The wreckage was uncovered in 1985 by French scientist Jean-Louis Michel and Marine geologist Robert Ballard, who led a joint French-American expedition. The Titanic remains were found approximately 350 miles off Newfoundland and about 12,500 feet deep in the North Atlantic.

According to a UPI report from July 19, 1986, “Ballard said the minisub’s three-man crew discovered other artifacts, including champagne bottles that were being readied for a toast when an iceberg tore a hole in the Titanic.”

For further reading about the Chinese wine company, we recommend an article from the Chinese-language website cnmjz.com and two stories from min.news.

In 2018, BusinessWorld published an unproven rumor about “a rich Asian collector” purportedly once buying six bottles of champagne recovered from the Titanic wreckage.

On Sept. 19, 1985 — just after the joint expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic — Chicago Tribune reported an article that provided some details and perspective about the wine and champagne bottles that were on the ship when it sank.

Note: Translations with Google Translate sometimes produce errors. Some websites also referred to the Chinese-made wine as “Haizang No. 1” from the “Yantai Age Wine Co., Ltd.”

Bennett, Will. “Davy Jones’ Locker Proves the Perfect Champagne Cellar.” Sydney Morning Herald via The Telegraph London via Newspapers.com, 9 Sept. 1998, p. 16, https://www.newspapers.com/image/119678535/.

Broad, William J., and Catherine Porter. “A Diver Feared the Titan Sub, but Couldn’t Resist the Titanic.” The New York Times, 11 Sept. 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/science/paul-henri-nargeolet-titanic-titan-submersible.html.

“First Videotapes of Titanic Give Glimpse of Thousands of Artifacts.” Richmond Times-Dispatch via UPI, 19 July 1986, p. A-2, https://www.newspapers.com/image/830960094/.

Gibbons, Dianne. “A ‘Museum’ the Size of London.” Evening Sentinel via Newspapers.com, 13 Oct. 1994, p. 30, https://www.newspapers.com/image/808442200/.

Google Translate. https://translate.google.com/.

“Haizang No. 1 Won the Annual Innovation Award at the Second Domestic Wine Industry and Commerce Summit.” Cnmjz.com, 6 Apr. 2021, http://www.cnmjz.com/n/6084.html.

Nicolas, Jino. “The Titanic and Underwater Wine Aging.” BusinessWorld Online, 17 Jan. 2018, https://www.bworldonline.com/arts-and-leisure/2018/01/18/110381/titanic-underwater-wine-aging/.

O’Kane, Caitlin. See Maps of Where the Titanic Sank and How Deep the Wreckage Is amid Search for Missing Sub – CBS News. 20 June 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/map-where-did-the-titanic-sink-wreckage-location-depth-missing-submarine/.

“R.M.S Titanic.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, https://www.noaa.gov/rms-titanic.

Seafloor Storage No. 1. https://seafloorstoragewine.net.

“Sesfloor Storage No.1 2019.” Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, 2021, https://resultats.concoursmondial.com/en/results/2021/170109-sesfloor-storage-no1-2019.

Titanic | History, Sinking, Rescue, Survivors, Movies, & Facts. Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Titanic.

“Titanic Exhibit Visits Memphis.” Travel Weekly, 13 Apr. 1997, https://www.travelweekly.com/Destinations2001-2007/Titanic-Exhibit-Visits-Memphis.

“Wine Lovers Thirsting for Titanic’s Treasure.” Chicago Tribune, 19 Sept. 1985, https://www.chicagotribune.com/1985/09/19/wine-lovers-thirsting-for-titanics-treasure/.

Yuchen, Zhang. “Not All Wine Can Be Called Haizang Wine.” iMedia, https://min.news/en/food/0529b8af45c9e20a029cafecf3a1817f.html.

—. “Will Sea Wine Become the next Trend?” iMedia, min.news/en/food/2c7071710d9b1c92b5bef43c46eefbc1.html.

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About the Author: Chris Lehoux

Meet Chris Lehoux, an experienced wine connoisseur and dedicated blogger with a deep passion for all things wine-related. With years of expertise in the industry, Chris shares insightful wine reviews, valuable wine tasting tips, expert pairing advice, and captivating tales of vineyard visits. Join Chris on a journey through the world of wine, where every sip is an adventure waiting to be savored!