Food & Wine
On its website, California wine company Ocean Fathoms praises the waters of the Santa Barbara channel as “the perfect environment” for aging its wines. “[T]he set of special characteristics of the Channel Islands’ environment gives Ocean Fathoms a superior product,” the company claims, before praising the abundant underwater flora and fauna that attach itself to each bottle.
In 2017, Ocean Fathoms started to submerge specially designed crates of its wine in the channel, and when the bottles were retrieved 12 months later, they were sold for up to $500 each. The problem — and this is a significant one — was that the company’s owners never received the proper permits from the California Coastal Commission or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which turned that “perfect environment” into an illegal one. Uncork
$500.00 per bottle because it was aged underwater in the Santa Barbara Channel. There’s a sucker born every minute. And I’m am not a fan licenses, permits and government bureaucrats, but the sellers seemed to break every rule and law put in front of them.
If aging wine under water is such a great idea why didn’t the Greeks or Romans or the French ever do it? I have my doubts that a year in the ocean is going to do the grape juice any good.
– why didn’t the Greeks or Romans or the French ever do it?
Well they did…. in sunken ships.
Aging wine underwater in the Santa Barbara Channel is just a gimmick that people of the likes of Marianne Williamson would hawk.
What can I get for Mtn. Dew aged in a pickle jar from San Francisco?
@aircubed – that ain’t Mtn Dew…
https://youtu.be/f8pfftpp0lY?t=211
@Left Coast Dan
Dang, I think I paid too much.