Featured Image Credit: BreAnne Elenburg
By Lindsay Edgar
Calling all wine-o’s! You’ve heard of aging, aeration, fermentation, and finish. You may have even used the words full-bodied or vegetal to describe a specific wine’s taste.
With all of the different techniques used around the world to make wine, a relatively new phenomenon has hit the wine market. Winemakers are taking their bottles and barrels underwater and aging them below the surface. You may be wondering, where did they get this crazy idea? And more importantly: will the it taste good?
Ever since divers retrieved a 170-year-old bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne from a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea and actually had the nerve to drink it, the ears of some winemakers perked up. The old champagne appeared to have higher levels of sugar and tasted less of alcohol. It seemed that the consistent temperature levels, low light, and small amount of oxygen outside the bottle contributed to the outcome.
Excited to experiment, Australian winemaker Ben Portet took the plunge and adopted the new technique. He became the first and only winemaker in Australia to release an “underwater aged” wine. Playing it on the safe side, he used freshwater instead of salt water. “I wasn’t prepared to take the risk of salt entering the wine,” he admitted.
The barrels remained underwater for a whole year. Did the wine eventually pass the taste test? Contrary to what he predicted, the result was very fruity. Similarly in the United States, Mira Winery in Napa, California has made their Aquoir concept into a specific science; the president of the company believes there is no doubt that the ocean holds a potential gift.
However, you can’t drink it yet! Their current efforts to revolutionize the wine industry are on hold due to some kinks in federal regulation.
Most winemakers and wine-drinkers alike still stick to land ageing, and underwater ageing won’t completely replace it. But the uniqueness of this process speaks for itself. Cheers to science!