This is the question our wine-tourism visitors and journalists ask us time and again. When and why did we decide to submerge wine in the sea?
It all began in 2007, when we set out to study how beverages evolve at depth and created the Underwater Beverage Ageing Laboratory (LSEB Plentzia). That is where it all began.
After submerging wines, beers and ciders, expert winemakers and laboratories began to confirm our suspicion: thanks to its movement and powerful tides, the Cantabrian Sea, combined with our process, improves the wines.
What did we discover?
The seabed is a setting entirely different from that of a traditional winerybecause of the conditions found there. Continuous changes in pressure and temperature, constant movement, humidity, limited light, lower gravity and the different propagation of sound make our winery and underwater reef a unique setting in which to treasure our wines.
These changing conditions create wines that are far more elegant, complex and different from their land-aged counterparts. One visible example of some of these changes is the crystallisation on the corks of our wines.
The constantly changing conditions along the Bizkaian coast, with waves that can reach up to 10 metres in height and tides every 6 hours (up to 4 metres high), are unique and uncontrollable, shaped by the moon and nature. “Biodynamics in its purest form,” as Antonio Palacios, our master winemaker, likes to explain it.
In this setting, the chemical components of the wine evolve differently. While some parameters increase, others decrease. The result is strikingly surprising: different, more distinctive wines that are absolutely impossible to replicate on land.
In general, we achieve better wines, clearly rated more highly by experts than their land-aged counterparts. Depending on the grape variety and the time and season spent at sea, the results vary. In general, we can say that the acidity is far more balanced, the tannins much rounder, and the wines become more glyceric and expressive, with nuances very different from their land-aged counterparts; in white wines, sensations of “spritz” may even be perceived.
In short, more complex and elegant wines, which acquire a longer life once they rest on land. Wines designed by our team to evolve at sea and once on land. A bottle evolution that remains alive and continues to surprise over the years.
The evolution of each grape variety is different. Depending on the type of grape, its evolution will take one form or another. During tasting, it can be difficult to identify the grape variety precisely because of the changes produced in the wine by underwater ageing (as we call the process of Crusoe Treasure).
You can experience the difference for yourself with our DUET Tierra vs Mar pack , where you can compare the same wine at its origin: one bottle kept on land and the other aged in our winery—artificial reef. Drawing your own conclusions is an experience that will pleasantly surprise you.
The exciting thing is that we still have so much left to explore. We have made countless discoveries, many of them by accident or chance. At Crusoe Treasure, we continue researching and opening up new projects, such as our studies of wooden barrels beneath the sea, which are also surprising and rewarding... Wine, as a living thing, evolves in a thousand ways that are still waiting to be discovered at sea, and it is this spirit of innovation that has defined Bodega Crusoe Treasure since 2007.
See for yourself too. Taste one of our wines