WineLovers Discussion Group

Dan Berger reports today that Mira Winery in Napa is planning to age wine under Charleston Harbor. He has no answers as to why, why there, how long, how transported, etc.? Does anyone have any more information on this?

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/ca ... cipes.html

3 months.
Pure marketing exercise (excuse me, I meant pure dumb@#s marketing exercise)

A lot of homeowners could age their wines underwater just by keeping it in their "underwater" homes.

Since its only underwater for 3 months it is hardly an experiment in ageing....

I know several wineries have done this, one which I follow is Souther Right in South Africa who put their Sauvignon Blanc 9 metres under False Bay for 2 years.

I saw pix of the bottles afterwards, they were covered in barnacles, and the wine quickly sold out ..

The Southern Right team has already conducted several tastings comparing the sea-aged and cellar-aged bottles. In all tastings the sea-aged wine was fresher, tighter, lighter in colour and less developed, while still showcasing a highly appealing additional complexity from bottle ageing. The land-aged wine has a rounder, fuller structure with more honeyed notes.

Exactly what makes the sea-aged wine fresher is unclear, but factors such as high pressure and the different vibrations of the under-sea environment are thought to play a role. Both the land and sea-aged wines experienced low to non-existent levels of ultra violet light and constant low temperatures. Source Southern Right/wine.co.za

This wine had cork closures - underwater there wouldn't be the oxygen effect on aging and the comparison description above sounds similar to comparing a screwcap closed wine with a traditional closure.

Peter May wrote:Since its only underwater for 3 months it is hardly an experiment in ageing....

I know several wineries have done this, one which I follow is Souther Right in South Africa who put their Sauvignon Blanc 9 metres under False Bay for 2 years.

I saw pix of the bottles afterwards, they were covered in barnacles, and the wine quickly sold out ..

The Southern Right team has already conducted several tastings comparing the sea-aged and cellar-aged bottles. In all tastings the sea-aged wine was fresher, tighter, lighter in colour and less developed, while still showcasing a highly appealing additional complexity from bottle ageing. The land-aged wine has a rounder, fuller structure with more honeyed notes.

Exactly what makes the sea-aged wine fresher is unclear, but factors such as high pressure and the different vibrations of the under-sea environment are thought to play a role. Both the land and sea-aged wines experienced low to non-existent levels of ultra violet light and constant low temperatures. Source Southern Right/wine.co.za

This wine had cork closures - underwater there wouldn't be the oxygen effect on aging and the comparison description above sounds similar to comparing a screwcap closed wine with a traditional closure.

Three months sounds to me more of a publicity stunt than a serious experiment and I reckon they could get the same effect by using screwcaps. It'd be a lot cheaper - but has less publicity appeal.