Aging wine (purposefully) underwater

“We were curious to explore if underwater ageing could actually allow us to have young wines with the benefit of maturity," winery founder Patricia Ortiz was quoted as saying. “We tasted the underwater-aged wine and the cellar-aged counterparts blind, the difference was stunning: the former was rounder, more elegant and with fresher fruit.””

“Popular science states that three years of aging in a cellar are equivalent to one year underwater."

Not sure where to begin with this, but how about 3x faster aging underwater than in the cellar. Hoping some of the chemistry folks will chime in.

Popular science says no such thing. Popular science is rather mute on the subject.

But let’s say it’s true. Does that mean a wine found in a 200 year old shipwreck is the same as if it spent 600 years in a cellar?

A few wineries are doing this:

Another strange thing is that they described the water aged wine as having fresher fruit, then go on to describe the faster aging. Thought the experiment was only 9 months long.

“In theory, underwater ocean aging offers a consistent low temperature and additional pressure to create a different aging experience”

In theory, no it doesn’t. Probably less consistent temperature than an underground cellar, or air conditioned above ground cellar. Same pressure inside the bottle as it would have in a normal cellar, or anywhere else.

So, pretty much just more wine bunk to be gobbled up by the conspiracy theory accepting masses.

That’s what I thought. If the pressure isn’t pushing in the cork (or cracking the glass), then the wine should be experiencing the same pressure as at sea level.

Leclerc Briant also makes an NV champagne called “Abyss” that’s aged for a year off the coast of Brittany. It is quite good but very hard to find in the US.

Apparently the idea here was inspired by a bunch of Heidsieck champagne that was sunk in the Baltic Sea during WWI and recovered in 1997 and was incredible. The idea being that it was dark, cold, and happened to be the same bottle pressure at the depth it sank as the inside of the bottles so the corks held.

They give no support to their “theory”. Obviously, as Even notes, wines recovered from some ship wrecks, where the water was cold, the wines were preserved by greatly slowed aging. To accelerate aging (or sort of simulate that), the water would need to be above cellar temperature. Significantly, if the difference is what they claimed. Fluctuation within a reasonable range would help. Submersion would prevent any oxygen ingress. So, Vin Sous Vide?

Raul Perez did this, as did a few others as I recall. The key is that you need to make sure the wine isn’t at a level where the exterior pressure is greater than the bottle pressure because you will get saltwater infiltration. Other than that, it’s more or less a gimmick. If in fact the temperature is constant, you can cause the same thing above ground. In fact, you can sink your wine into a water-filled container and keep it in a cool room. No salt, no fluctuations in temp or pressure, no BS. But that wouldn’t seem so romantic.

That jumped out at me right away as well, John.

In General they do it a lot in Santorini, the major factor is the complete absence of oxygen, which of course keeps the ageing process slower. The water temperature varies a lot during a year.

A smart trick to price a 20Euro bottle at 200Euro.

Five years in an oxygen-protected environment creates an obviously reductive wine, with the tell-tale aroma of struck matches, and tighter structure than the equivalent wine when matured in the winery. The wine was still entirely fresh and zingy in my hotel fridge four days later. Quite different to the Submerged, and possibly my favourite wine of the 100-odd I tried during the visit, is Gaia’s Wild Ferment Assyrtiko. Several wineries produce a wild-ferment Assyrtiko, invariably the island’s lushest, deepest-flavoured examples.

Interesting, but a good high quality cork should let in so little oxygen, I’m skeptical even this is a factor.

Add a wax cap over cork, and it would be hard to get less oxygen ingress. Same with a screwcap engineered to fit tight.
15C water temperature in higher than the usual 13C recommended cellar temperature.
It’s all in the power of suggestion (“saline” notes in one of the descriptions), and marketing.

Looks like there could be a “catch” to the scheme.

Ok , I feel for the business’s a bit, but setting the scene of an underwater theft like something out of an old Bond movie is funny stuff.

“A lot” in Santorini? At least I haven’t heard of nobody but Gaia producing wines aged underwater and even they produce only a few hundred bottles per vintage. That doesn’t sound a lot to me.

So, do you know any other producer besides Gaia that produced wines aged underwater - and hopefully in larger quantities?

I’m inclined to think as you do.

I had this Frankenstein of a wine on New Year’s Eve, meh

At least when people decided to age a whisky in a jet, it was for a charity auction.

I’m just waiting for the next big thing — wine aged on the Mars rover. Red wine from the red planet. The intern-level marketing copy writes itself.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/11/veterans-special-batch-of-whiskey-to-age-with-speedin-a-harrier-jet.html#:~:text=A%20couple%20of%20veterans%20are,sky%20in%20a%20Sea%20Harrier.

Did you shuck your own oysters off the side of that bottle to accompany, Robert?