"This is an unprecedented experiment for scientific purposes in France," says Philippe Hugueney, research director at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) in Colmar (Haut-Rhin). For eighteen months, he has been supervising the immersion of 300 bottles of crémant from Domaine Muré 25 m under the waters of the Colmar-Houssen nautical base.
"This initiative was taken by the city of Colmar to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Wine Route. It started in 2021, and a few days ago we found a few bottles after eighteen months under water," explains the scientist. One of the best sommeliers in the world then lent himself to a blind tasting to identify the aroma of crémant immersed in the middle of other bottles kept in the cellar. "After eighteen months, it appears that the crémant is slightly younger. This should be confirmed at the end of the ten years of immersion and at each stage of conservation planned every year and a half, "decrypts Philippe Hugueney.
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If this experiment aims to study the evolution of the storage of crémant under water compared to conservation in the cellar, it also has a scientific significance. "The question is also whether immersion modifies the aromatic values of the crémant," says the research director. Based on the water containers, the scientists will conduct biochemical analyses to find out how the environment of the bottle will impact the aging of the wine.
"The temperature underwater is almost the same as in the cellar. On the other hand, what changes is the pressure under water and the absence of oxygen. Submerged bottles should undergo less oxidation, which can be interesting for great wines," says Philippe Hugueney. See you in 2031 to have the conclusions of this study.
