Rare liqueur linked to doomed Titanic at Vinexpo

A bottle of 1912 Marie Brizard gold-speckled Danzig liqueur, of the kind served to those aboard Titanic’s doomed maiden voyage in 1912, will be on show at this year’s Vinexpo in Bordeaux.

The extremely rare bottle comes from the cellar of Michel-Jack Chasseuil, whose private collection of wines numbers some 40,000 bottles.

From his vast collection, Chasseuil selected 100 of the rarest to be featured in his book, 100 Extraordinary Bottles: From the Most Beautiful Wine Cellar in the World, including this bottle of 1912 Marie Brizard liqueur which contains 22-23 carat gold shards.

Chasseuil bought the bottle in 1988 at an auction in Versailles, with the bottle put up for sale by the descendants of Louis Renault, the founder of the Renault cars and its former owner.

Renault, according to this ancestors, had held the ambition of crossing the Atlantic on board the Titanic in 1912, but luckily for him his dream did not come true.

Unable to make the journey himself, but keen to get a taste of the experience, Renault tracked down a bottle of Marie Brizard’s Danzig liqueur after learning that it would among the beverages be served on board.

At the time, the gold-flecked Danzig liqueur, created by a Dutchman in the 16th century and based on herbs and roots, held the reputation of being able to purify one’s blood.

Renault never drank the liqueur, preserving a small slice of liquid history.

Chasseuil’s bottle of 1912 Brizard liqueur will be at Vinexpo this year, as part of a showcase of the brand’s heritage, at the Marie Brizard Wine and Spirits stand, Hall 1, Stand BD287.