Japan, along with several international producers, promotes wine aging at the bottom of the sea, the largest natural cellar that seems to yield surprising results. The Japanese PR company III Three has opened a venue where "submerged" labels will be sold off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture, while the company Hokkaido Kaiyo Matsuri has made available a service that allows individuals to "guard" and age their own wines (and more) on the seabed.
A marine cellar
The project for sea aging by the III Three company is called Sea Cellar Tlass. More than 500 bottles of European wine have been selected and positioned on the seabed off Amami-Oshima Island. According to Drinks Business, the wine was placed in stainless steel cages and submerged to a depth of 20 meters. Most of the bottles will be left to mature in the marine depths until June, while others will be left longer to observe the wine's evolution under these particular conditions.
The sea cellar bar
Last year, the company also opened a venue overlooking Shimizu Beach in the city of Setouchi, the southernmost tip of Amami Oshima and located right in front of the point in the ocean where the wine bottles are aged. A venue with a view of the ocean of the Oshima Strait that, from July, will offer customers the opportunity to enjoy a more than exclusive deep-sea wine list, curated by Japanese Master of Wine Kenichi Ohashi.
The wine expert, indeed, has been involved in the underwater aging project, contributing his expertise to refine the process. Yuri Moritani, president of III Three PR and the driving force behind the project, stated that he also hopes to achieve benefits in terms of sustainability and biodiversity, as the cellar will act as an artificial coral reef, attracting fish and other associated marine species.
It's not all about wine that matures at sea.
On the other hand, Hokkaido Kaiyo Matsuri company is gathering interest from anyone wishing to age their alcoholic beverages on the seabed. Until April 19, those who wish to submerge bottles off the coast of Hokkaido can sign up for the project. The bottles will then be submerged from June 30, 2024, to June 29, 2025. The cost? Approximately 105,600 ¥ (about 645 euros) per storage cage. The price includes immersion costs, monitoring, maintenance, sealing with wax, and insurance.
Each crate can hold 12 bottles, and any alcoholic beverage (whisky, tequila, wine, sparkling wine, liqueur) can be aged as long as the bottles are as similar as possible in shape and size to a standard wine bottle. Not only that: included in the price will be a monitoring system, which includes a solar-powered camera pointed at the cellar, meaning participants can have a view of their marine assets 24 hours a day.
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