Underwater Wineries

An idea emerged when 168 bottles of champagne were found in 2010 on a ship that sank in the Baltic Sea 170 years earlier. They were in fine condition. So vintners in the French wine-producing region of Provence decided to age their wine by placing bottles under the sea for a year.

After tasting 120 bottles of red, white and rosé from Bandol that had been stored at 40m deep in the Mediterranean, and comparing them with the equivalent kept in the traditional cellar, they declared their experiment a success.

Currently, at least ten wineries around the world are experimenting with underwater wine aging, even one in South Carolina, a wine region that might need a little help to produce a drinkable product. Two years ago, Veuve Cliquot laid down 300 bottles of champagne in the icy waters of the Baltic.