Underwater wineries tap a growing niche market for wines aged beneath the waves
Keeping wines in seabed cellars adds complexity and speeds up the ageing process, say advocates of a practice spreading around Spain’s coasts and also used in France, Italy and Chile. Premium prices cover the extra cost
With the aid of a small crane, Borja Saracho lowers five cages loaded with 2,500 bottles of white wine from a fishing boat into the Cantabrian Sea. He then plunges into the sea wearing a wetsuit to check sensors that monitor temperature and water pressure around the precious load.
“We are a winery,” says the 44-year-old founder of Crusoe Treasure in the picturesque bay of Plentzia near Bilbao in Spain’s northern Basque region.
Until several years ago this diving enthusiast did not even drink wine. Now he sells wines that have been aged underwater – a growing niche market – in Spain as well as in Belgium, China, Switzerland, Germany and Japan. “I have always been interested in sunken ships and hidden treasures,” says Saracho, whose company has been in the market since 2013 and is the largest underwater winery in Spain.
Crusoe Treasure expects to sell 30,000 bottles of red and white wine this year, up from just 7,000 in 2017. The prices of its wines start at €58 (US$67.50) a bottle. It is one of about a dozen firms that age wines underwater in Spain. Other firms which age wine underwater exist in Italy, France and Chile.
The underwater conditions – total darkness and constant temperature – are thought to accelerate the ageing process, adding complexity to the wine. But it comes at a price – the technique costs 25-70 per cent more for the winemaker than ageing wine on land because of the logistics required.
