Wine tastes better with age. But Tauranga's Pat Klitscher is certain her bottle of champers, with its origins in World War I, will now taste like vinegar.

Pat's father Nelson Gordon Woods came back from The Great War battered, broken and emotionally scarred – the aftermath of mustard gas attacks and shellshock.

Tauranga's Pat Klitscher and her bottle of champagne from WWI. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

He also returned with a bottle of champagne, French champagne – good champagne. It was a gift of love for Pat's mother Clarice – a gift that fell flat because Clarice didn't drink wine. She committed it to the China cabinet.

Almost 100 years on, this souvenir from Pommery Winery in Reims has never been opened. It now sits safely in a box, in the cupboard at Clarice's house – and Pat may never pop the cork.

'It must have some value to it,” says the 95-year-old. 'But once the seal comes off the top it wouldn't be special anymore.”

But it remains special to Pat. It may not be drinkable, it may not have monetary value, but it certainly has sentimental value because the bottle was meant to be opened on her wedding day in 1946. That didn't happen.

'We've always laughed about the champagne and why it wasn't opened,” says Pat. 'But we just forgot about it with all the excitement of the wedding.” And she says another special occasion demanding champagne just hasn't arisen.

There's a lot of history in this bottle. Pat's father Nelson, known as Dick, ran away at 14 to serve in the Boer War. He lied about his age, telling the British Army he was 16.

When he returned he met and married Clarice and had four children. But when WWI broke out, Nelson re-joined his regiment in the British Imperial Army as a Sergeant Major.

He was a Sergeant Major in his regiment and at home, according to his daughter. 'He was quite a strict man,” says Pat. 'He used to think his kids were the Privates in his platoon. A real Sergeant Major.”

Nelson was invalided home after suffering from mustard gas and shellshock and spent six months at a rehabilitation centre in Hanmer Springs.

'He never fully recovered,” says Pat. 'He lived until he was 68 but he was what I would describe as a sick man. His nerves were shot, he was not really a very well man my whole life.”

His memorial was a bottle of champagne. It has lost its label but it hasn't lost its significance.

Mills Reef's chief winemaker Tim Preston says it's hard to place the wine's origins without the label. Is it drinkable? He doubts it.

'It'll be gone,” says Tim. 'It'll be oxidised and the cork would have failed by now.”

Tim says it would have been a good champagne though. 'The Pommery Winery is a very well-regarded champagne house.”

Most wines have a three to 15-year maximum drink expiry but he guesses there's a 20-year limit on champagne.

'They continue to change and people enjoy them at those different stages,” he adds.” After time the fruit starts to drop away and you get all the savoury notes.”

And its value? 'It's got really historic value for the family,” says Tim. 'But it would take some research for the monetary value.”

Either way it doesn't matter to Pat. This bottle of unpalatable champagne has become a family heirloom.