Will wine age under the sea?

Girona (CNA). - Espelt Viticultors, a winery in the Costa Brava village of Vilajuïga, has culminated this week the first phase of a pioneering experiment in Catalonia. The project consisted of placing 300 bottles of wine for over 400 days in the marine waters of the Cap de Creus Natural Park to examine its maturation process. This week they have retrieved the bottles and some positive results have been found, especially for old wines.

The main goal of the experiment is to determine the evolution and characteristics of wines matured on the seabed. But unlike other similar initiatives in France or Chile, Espelt winery from the Alt Empordà region has no plans to market this product yet.

Initial findings indicate that old wines evolved better than younger ones. Moreover, silicone plugs insulate better than corks. The experiment was carried out between Cala Jóncols and Cala Montjoi, where Ferran Adrià has his world-famous restaurant El Bulli. Quality and experimentation are two of the biggest success factors behind contemporary Catalan cuisine and wine.