Posted: Jan 12, 2019
A winemaker who leaves his sparkling wine on the sea bottom claims his bubbly never gets old if it's aged underwater - and some of it has been there for up to five years.
Every autumn, winemaker Piero Lugano gathers his team of scuba divers to bring several boxes of the bubbly - which is made like champagne - back under the sunlight after months spent in the sea depths outside of Sestri Levante, Italy.
The entrepreneur's team take a few boats and a barge with a crane to the waters where they send divers down to tie the boxes with ropes and then remove them from the sea.
Mr Lugano argues that because of the constant temperature, limited light and lack of oxygen under the sea it can produce a similar effect to wine being stored in an underground cellar - where it is usually kept. Pictured is some of the wine stored on the ocean floor
Some of the bottles are lifted out of the sea, and would have been kept there for at least 14 months. Mr Lugano's team take a few boats and a barge with a crane to the waters under which the bottles lie and then send divers down to tie the boxes with ropes
Mr Lugano launched his winemaking company, Bisson, in 1978, as a parallel project to his academic career. As he realised the company was taking off he decided to devote himself to it full-time, however, it was only in 2008 that he started making bubbly (pictured left being removed from the sea). Pictured right is a barge and crane used to remove the bottles
When Mr Lugano sells the final product, he keeps the little sea organisms that got stuck onto the glass (pictured). But he seals the bottles with a film and treat them so that it's safe
Mr Lugano (centre) produces his wine in the Italian region of Liguria. It is a tight stretch of land close to the sea and the soil is rich with mineral salts. He said: 'This means our grapes are incredibly sapid and great for making sparkling wine, although nobody had ever done that in Liguria'
Piero, who is a former art professor and has studied marine archaeology, said: 'Wine came to modern civilisation through sealed amphoras found on the sea floor, where it was conserved in its liquid form.
'This led me to think and realise that underwater spaces are great for the conservation of organic substances.
'This is because of the constant temperature, limited light and lack of oxygen, all factors that are present in the underground cellars where wine is normally kept.'
Piero launched his winemaking company, Bisson, in 1978, as a parallel project to his academic career.
As he realised the company was taking off he decided to devote himself to it full-time, however, it was only in 2008 that he started making bubbly.
He says: 'Our territory in the Italian region of Liguria is a tight stretch of land close to the sea and the soil is rich with mineral salts.
'This means our grapes are incredibly sapid and great for making sparkling wine, although nobody had ever done that in Liguria.'
The winemaker argues that keeping his product on the sea floor is actually better than keeping it in a cellar. He said: 'In the cellars, there is a slow but steady exchange between wine and oxygen, which means that eventually the wine gets oxidised. That doesn't happen on the sea floor where a bottle can be kept for decades'
Every autumn, winemaker Mr Lugano gathers his team of scuba divers to bring several boxes of the bubbly - which is made like champagne - back under the sunlight after months spent in the sea depths outside of Sestri Levante, Italy
Mr Lugano stores hundreds of bottles of wine on the sea floor just outside of Sestri Levante, Italy. Here the wine - and now bubbly - ages without issue before it is eventually removed and sold to the public
He uses a a few boats and a barge with a crane to remove all of the product
The lack of a cellar for his bubbly led Mr Lugano to think of the creative solutions and take the wine 45 metres below the sea surface to age.
Mr Lugano then retrieves the bottles and sells them with algae, sea shells, starfish, little crabs and sometimes even tiny fish that got stuck to the glass.
He says: 'All the bottles are kept on the sea floor for not less than 14 months, but some of them have been there for four or five years.
'In the cellars, there is a slow but steady exchange between wine and oxygen, which means that eventually the wine gets oxidised.
'That doesn't happen on the sea floor where a bottle can be kept for decades, which is extraordinary considering it's sparkling wine.
'When we sell the final product, we keep the little sea organisms that got stuck onto the glass, but we seal the bottles with a film and treat them so that it's safe.'
By James Wood
January 12, 2019
Source: Dailymail.com
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