Q:

Is it safe to drink a four decades old champagne? 

A friend of my family gave us an unopened bottle of Bollinger champagne from 1979.  It is a vintage champagne.  Is it safe to drink?  As far as I understand, the worst that could happen to alcohol is that it turns into vinegar.  However, we opened it and it does not take like vinegar.  It lost all the fizz, and tastes a bit like cheap wine + sweet (desert) wine.  But we are not sure it is safe to drink.  Any advice? 

A:

Simple answer is yes!  The more complex answer is that it might not taste all that great but I've had some aged sparkling wines that were 10+ years old and were quite nice.  But having lost it's carbonation does not make it bad, it will taste just like you described, cheap old wine.