The discovery in 2010 of 168 bottles of champagne in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea created a stir in the world of wine.
A study by the University of Reims revealed that the conditions in which the sparkling wines were found had allowed the liquid to maintain its qualities intact.
These results motivated some wineries to begin experimenting with new ways of aging their wines.
Since then, Italy, Australia, Chile, France, the United States and Spain, among other countries, have wineries that produce this type of drinks.
However, sommeliers and producers do not agree as to whether this type of aging really contributes anything or is just a strategy to increase sales.
The harvest, production and fermentation of underwater wines does not differ from those produced on land.
The process until bottling is the same as that of any other wine.
It is at the moment of their maturation where the influence of the sea comes into play, although many of them complete a first phase of aging in barrels before submerging themselves in the ocean and resting at a depth of between 15 and 20 meters in cages.
As this is a relatively new brewing model, there is still a lot of experimentation.
The only way to know when a wine is at its optimal moment is to do micro-extractions on the bottles and analyze its evolution, and the market sells those that have spent from six months to two years on the seabed.
What there does seem to be consensus on is that the sea does not perform miracles or mask defects.
Quality production is needed from the beginning, and if a wine is born poor, it will continue to be poor after its passage through the depths.
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Best qualities or marketing strategy?
Producers, tasters and sommeliers disagree about the benefits of underwater aging.
Antonio T. Palacios, doctor in Biology and winemaker at the Crusoe Treasure winery in Vizcaya, self-proclaimed first reef winery in the world, assures that the sea accelerates processes.
“The bottles are subject to the force of the tides, which cause a more accelerated chemical maturation kinetics of the wine itself.”
For Palacios, one of the great secrets is pressure.
At the depth at which these cellars are normally located, the bottles withstand a pressure of about two atmospheres, which can rise to three with the force of the waves.
These pressure changes cause a micro-breathing effect through the sealed cork that allows the gas to pass through, so there is an important exchange of oxygen.
“In the laboratory it was seen that marine wines had more oxygen than their terrestrial brothers.
At first we didn't understand it, but then we realized that this oxygen had to do with pressure.
Although there is more oxygen in the air than in the sea, at higher pressure the gases permeate more.”
View of the bottles under the sea.
Image provided by the Crusoe Treasure company.
On the contrary, for Paco Flores, founding partner of Bodega Nautilus (Lanzarote), it is the anaerobic environment of the sea that seems to have the most direct influence on the wine.
What experts do seem to agree on is that more research is needed in this regard.
Many of the defenders of this technique rely on the study carried out by the University of Reims.
However, the research did not conclude that the recovered century-old champagne was better thanks to its underwater rest.
With a more archaeological approach, it focused on learning how the centenary sparkling wine had been made, shedding light on the ways of doing things in the 19th century.
Despite being presented as wines with gastronomic potential, these references are not very present in restaurants.
Santi Rivas, taster and named best wine communicator by the
International Wine Challenge Industry Awards
, assures that “they are not seen much on the menus, but they can be found in some stores, where the curious exterior of the bottles, with their limpets, "It's very funny."
Among the circles started, according to Rivas, the effects of pressure are not clear, but those of noise are.
“The sea has noise.
The boats, the movement of the waves, etc., end up becoming waves that rock the wine.
This makes the reds more pleasant and the whites more concentrated.”
For Marian Alonso, sommelier at the Casa Küme restaurant, “the benefits must occur at the level of preparation, due to the conditions of temperature, humidity and pressure, but at the organoleptic level it does not contribute much, to say nothing.”
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A post shared by Nautilus Lanzarote's Underwater Winery (@lanzarotenautilus)
These bottles are also linked to luxury and exclusivity and appear in some areas of the west coast of the United States, exceeding $500.
California has been, precisely, where the controversy over underwater wines broke out last August when the Ocean Fathoms winery was accused of operating illegally off the coast of Santa Barbara.
According to
The Washington Post
, the owners of the winery pleaded guilty to the crimes of “illegally discharging materials into US waters, selling alcohol without a license and helping to incite fraud on their investors.”
In the same article, winemaker and University of California professor Andrew Waterhouse stated that “there is no need to age wines underwater.”
From his point of view, although there may be benefits in a quiet environment, with limited light and constant temperature, winemakers can reproduce these constants without having to resort to underwater aging, which ends up resulting in a significant increase in production costs.
This increase translates into a price that exceeds 50 euros in most of the Spanish submarine references, which makes them wines for special occasions and that have greater appeal among the foreign public.
“They sell very well at Christmas, for example.
It is something special and has a story behind it, so it works very well as a gift,” says Paco Flores.
Spain has about twenty wineries that produce this type of wine - such as Bodegas Habla -, a number that has been increasing since 2013, when Crusoe Treasure opened the market.
Not all of them produce, or at least they did not do so since their beginnings, when they simply offered the bottle aging service to third parties, but time led them to have their own vineyards.
Such is the case of Crusoe Treasure or the Bodega Submarina del Mediterráneo (Alicante), which differentiates itself by including cava and other sparkling wines among its references.
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A post shared by Bodega Submarina del Mediterráneo (@theseawineclub)
In the tasting notes of these wines, qualities such as bright color and roundness in the mouth or minerality are frequently highlighted, traits that are not usually found together.
Aside from the organoleptic characteristics of this type of drinks, the facilities that are established on the marine floor to obtain them are very attractive for wine tourism.
In some locations on the Catalan coast, the ElixSea company, in addition to aging wines for third parties, offers diving experiences with a “treasure hunt”, in which the client explores the marine life of the reef in search of a chest containing the wine. which you can later taste.
Vina Maris, in Calpe, and Nautilus, in Lanzarote, also offer the opportunity to practice underwater wine tourism and get to know their wineries with prices starting at 60 euros and in many cases no previous experience is necessary.
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