THE SAD TALE OF - THE BIGGEST CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE IN THE WORLD

Dave Smith loves his Champagne. He studies it, learns all about it, enthuses all about it and is happiest of all when sampling it. It is hard to imagine his delight when the local newspaper carried this story: 15 April 2009

 

WORLD'S LARGEST CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE ON DISPLAY

The world’s largest size of champagne bottle is on display at Portland Wines.
The Melchizedek - equivalent to 40 standard bottles - stands four feet tall and is worth £4,000.
The huge bottle of Drappier was specially ordered from the shop on Portland Street by a Southport businessman who collects champagne, but it will be on display for another week.
The same man bought the second-largest size - a 36-bottle Primat - from the store several years ago.
“This is the largest mass-produced bottle in the world, but they only make around 20 a year,” Portland Wines owner Dave Smith said.
“They are made to order and it has taken about 12 weeks for it to arrive. It is exciting for all of us to have it on display in the shop.”

By Natasha Robson

That should have been the end of it ! People came to admire Dave's great bottle given pride of place in shop but, on Tuesday afternoon (Dave's "day of rest"), the bottle, fortunately, was watched only by the security video...

The bottle sat snuggly in its wooden case, 30 litres (almost 53 pints, over six and one half gallons!) of the finest bubbly around... when...

BOOM ! ! !

In the picture on the right you can see the top part of the bottle rocketed through the wooden case aiming for orbit. Taken seconds after the explosion, Dave has difficulty looking at the next image without emitting a low, strangulated, sobbing scream as 30 litres of his beloved Champagne foams, hissing, on the carpet. For those of you with stronger constitution than Dave and a penchant for facts... it takes approximately 27.8 seconds for the foam from 30 litres of Champagne to soak completely into carpet.

The pressure inside a Champagne bottle is typically 90psi, (about 620 kPa, 6 atmospheres) around three times the prrssure in your car tyres.

Champagne corks can leave the bottle at speeds up to 65kph (40mph) and fly up to 6 metres (18 feet) high.

Jerusalem yerushalem, yerushalayim (Hebrew) Represents the earth; in Christian and Qabbalistic symbology, also the city of God or the heavenly Jerusalem, the goal of human spiritual attainment. "In Hebrew it is written Yrshlim or 'city of peace,' but the ancient Greeks called it pertinently Hierosalem or 'Secret Salem,' since Jerusalem is a rebirth from Salem of which Melchizedek was the King-Hierophant, a declared Astrolator and worshipper of the Sun, 'the Most High'. . .