The wine that comes from the sea • Food and Wine Italy

Have you ever thought about making a Brand-new Year’s Eve 2024 toast with a white wine that originates from the bottom of the sea? Today it is possible and what makes it so is the Under Water White Wine (UWW) task, most likely the most curious and favorable news for the world of red wine in this hard 2023 vintage, which opens to delighted potential customers for the improvement of red wine, its palatability industrial and, above all, its ecological effect.

Jamin and the UWW task

Everything starts from the Jamin Portofino UWW task, the very first Italian SME concentrated on engineering services and undersea cellar methods. A concept signed up in 2015 by the creator Emanuele Kottakhs, emerged in 2021 with the entry of Antonello Maietta (previous AIS president) as president of the board of directors and formally provided in November this year in the very first International Satisfying of UnderWaterWines.

The start of the work was set in movement thanks to a crowdfunding which had a minimum goal of 250 thousand euros, however which raised 600 thousand in less than 2 days, simply to evaluate the interest with which it was invited. To then acquire, within a couple of months, 5 awards, consisting of the Unique Reward for Development in Merano.

Jamin, this is the name of the task, which stems from the dialect of the Genoese sailors “giaminare” or “to strive”, presently includes 409 members and a franchising network which currently consists of 4 undersea cellars associated to the leader of Portofino (Ravenna, Termoli, Acquappesa and Scarlino), to which another 4 will quickly be included Campania, Abruzzo, Sicily and Basilicata.

The effort uses the expert contribution of engineers, physicists, marine biologists, scuba divers, oenologists and sommeliers called, on the one hand, to perform strenuous sensorial and lab analyses, and on the other, complicated diving and emerging operations at a depth of 52 meters of unique modular cages, holding around 500 bottles each, geared up with unique sensing units for taping information. All accompanied by a crucial Research study & Advancement department, to which 30% of the resources are designated, which is dealing with the development of a Smart Cage efficient in helping with the management of diving operations and enabling the reading of remote information in genuine time; while, in collaboration with the DAGRI of the University of Florence, a brand-new technical bottle closure is being developed: UWW Cork. Simply put, an extreme group “roaming” in numerous aspects.

White wine under water

The option of improving the red wine under water, although definitely not the easiest or least expensive – each cellar operation expenses around 25 thousand euros and includes the captain’s workplace, engineers, specialist scuba divers and medical personnel due to the compulsory existence of a hyperbaric chamber– provides numerous benefits, a number of which can not be reproduced on land. First off, it permits us to remove the existence of UV rays, the ones that the majority of disrupt the red wine, triggering the so-called “light problem”. Then, it ensures consistent pressure and temperature level, equivalent to 6 environments and the 13-14 ° C common of the Mediterranean Sea for a depth of 52 metres.

Lastly, which does not injured in times of decreasing appeal and sales of red wine, it presents an excellent marketing and storytelling part, likewise carried out by the beauty of bottles “covered” in marine concretions, raising the understanding of the worth of the red wines. Beyond this, there might even be something more, and the tastings highlighted this.

To the trial run

In a tasting that compared the exact same red wines aged, one in a regular cellar “on land”, the other at sea, and for the exact same variety of months, some distinctions stuck out. Broadly speaking, the seafood red wines all had a more undamaged and younger taste-olfactory profile, certainly thanks to the hyper-reduction offered by the truth of remaining in the overall lack of oxygen. A condition which, on land, is not offered, unless a screw or Stelvin cap is utilized, of which advertisement hoc research study has actually currently highlighted these authorities. And which figures out a various development and understanding of the strength of the red wine depending upon the type. All aspects that are currently being observed in DAGRI’s research study around the Jamin task and which will be carried out in the coming months likewise to determine which kinds of red wine might be most appropriate for aging at sea. Amongst the lots of research studies still underway, nevertheless, there is one that is currently a certainty: the sustainability of cellars at sea.

The sustainability of the UWW

Can a white wine carried to -52 meters undersea be more sustainable than a white wine kept land? Yes, due to the fact that undersea cellaring impacts 2 essential elements of red wine improvement: area and energy. Envision, for instance, the area of Liguria, where the task was born, or an island with a high wine-growing occupation like Pantelleria, where area is restricted and the landscape is a property to be protected; where the environment is hot and electrical power is costly, due to the fact that it needs to be carried. And where, on the other hand, the sea is a defining resource. Putting the bottles of red wine to age in water suggests preventing constructing brand-new underground cellars in a minimal and complicated area, for that reason not impacting the landscape and the environment and, above all, conserving electrical power for a/c the spaces, rather making use of a natural possibility (as in the world it would be that used by a deep cavern). All this, without affecting the marine community, as shown by the research study provided by Teacher Giorgio Bavestrello, accountable for the research study on behalf of the DISTAV of the University of Genoa.

Numerous red wines and the very first UWW Champagne

In 2022, around the globe, there were around 400 thousand “immersed” bottles, compared to 100 thousand in 2021, hence showing a phenomenon with high capacity for interest and advancement. Jamin alone is all set to carry on to stage 2.0, making the gotten knowledge relevant to enable anybody to separately open their own undersea cellar through franchising. A job which, as we have actually seen, is including numerous production websites throughout Italy and which presently has as lots of as 200 kinds of immersed red wines, while experiments are likewise beginning to be made with additional virgin oils and extracts.

Thanks to the effective experience of the Veuve maison Clicquot began following the discovery, in 2010, of bottles of Champagne shipwrecked together with the ship that carried them in 1840, Jamin has actually likewise explore champagnes, introducing the very first Champagne worldwide identified as Under Water White Wine (UWW), the -52 Cloe Marie Kottakis. After refermentation in the bottle in the on-land cellar, it was aged for an additional 24 months at a depth of 52 meters in the UnderWaterWine Cavern within the Portofino Marine Protected Location. The Choice Edition originates from a little batch of around 700 bottles and is cost an expense of 294 euros on the Jamin site. An asking price that is definitely less competitive than that of a “land” red wine, however, as we have actually seen, these are distinct pieces that likewise include a great deal of work and research study. And after that, do you wish to include the beauty of toasting the brand-new year with a bottle that originates from the sea?