THIS Costa del Sol bodega is the primary to legally promote wine aged underwater by teaming up with an area shellfish farm.
Escaramujo Wines and Frutos del Mar have labored collectively to turn into the primary underwater vineyard licensed by the Spanish Meals Well being Company (Aesan).
The Olive Press went on a tasting tour and we discovered ourselves jetting out of Estepona port on a transparent, sunny day in December.
I couldn’t consider a greater method to spend my Saturday morning than sipping wine whereas studying about this distinctive enterprise.
The vineyard was born in 2021 when Dutch aquaculture engineer Khwame Paloeloe Helder, often known as Palu, met Spanish wine professional Victor Gomez.
Photograph: The Olive Press
Gomez had found underwater wineries in Galicia nevertheless it wasn’t till an opportunity assembly with Helder that his concept to create Spain’s first licensed underwater bodega started.
The Dutchman was already experimenting with submerging wine bottles in his 25 hectare farm within the Mar Alboran to discourage barnacles from attaching to his scallops and oysters.
He found the pesky crustaceans liked the graceful floor of wine bottles and left his shellfish alone.
Later, assembly Gomez was the right alternative to mix enterprise pursuits and create an modern new enterprise.
Photograph: The Olive Press
Underwater wine ageing first gained traction in 2010, when a nineteenth century French shipwreck was found within the Baltic Sea.
Among the many wreckage have been a unprecedented 186 intact bottles of champagne, believed to be a present from King Louis XVI to Tsar Peter the Nice.
Not solely had the bottles survived OVER 170 YEARS underwater, however the wine’s high quality had not been affected.
Based on the scientific journal, the Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the ocean’s darkness and fixed temperature helped to protect it, sparking a brand new vanguard in wine ageing.
Off the coast of Estepona, the Mar Alboran supplies optimum circumstances due to its low temperatures and luminosity.
Escaramujo gained its well being license in 2022 after leaping over a lot purple tape and choosing wines from prime Spanish vineyards to submerge for additional getting older.
The present rocks the bottles and promotes fermentation, resulting in a creamy really feel within the mouth with a barely larger alcohol content material and fewer sugar.
Photograph: The Olive Press
And as if that wasn’t sufficient, Gomez claims the wine provides you much less of a hangover with no complications.
“Folks assume that is only a pattern nevertheless it’s a really totally different manner of making wine,” Gomez mentioned.
“It’s a really pure method which rewards you with a extra refined end result.”
Whereas a bottle of wine prices slightly greater than some may need to spend at €100 (and native honey mead clocks in at €90), simply 1,000 bottles are fermented per 12 months.
After the 11 month getting older course of is completed, Helder and Gomez personally dive some 20 metres beneath the floor to gather the bottles by hand.
Photograph: Escaramujo Wines
After being extracted, the wine is fantastically adorned with corals, barnacles and shells, a course of which isn’t simply aesthetically pleasing, however wonderful for marine life.
Gomez explains that the barnacles are pure water filters, making it a lot cleaner the place the wine is fermented.
Photograph: Escaramujo Wines
This attracts a myriad of species, together with the endangered pinna nobilis mussel, which is collected and despatched to conservation organisations.
To humanely get rid of the barnacle meat, the bottles are submerged in recent water till the barnacles die, at which level they’re put again into the ocean and eaten by snails, crabs and octopuses.
Photograph: Escaramujo Wines
The superb water high quality can be the right surroundings to breed Helder’s specialities: flat oysters, zamburiñas and vieiras (two varieties of scallops).
Although as a vegan I couldn’t pattern the delicacies myself, my brother, who declared he didn’t like shellfish earlier than the journey, was fortunately wolfing down the ‘scrumptious’ morsels.
Photograph: The Olive Press
Such was his delight that it even tempted a fellow veggie to attempt a zamburiña scallop, albeit garnished with garlic and grapes.
Photograph: Escaramujo Wines
“It’s not simply wine and seafood, it’s an expertise and we’re creating recollections,” mentioned Gomez.
Regardless of my absolute lack of information about shellfish, I got here out of the 2 hour boat cruise feeling like an professional.
Helder, a marine biologist, is deeply obsessed with his work and has lots of of attention-grabbing details to share.
Gomez in the meantime is clearly enamoured by wine and explains the getting older course of in a transparent and interesting manner.
To ebook a tasting or buy a bottle, contact Escaramujo Wines by their website or e-mail: rosehipwines@gmail.com.Should you fancy shellfish, contact Frutos del Mar on their website, or e-mail: data@frutosdelmar.es.
