Croatia Unveils First Underwater Winery

Trailing round French vineyards or popping over to California Wine Country are now old as Croatia’s Pelješac peninsula has added a new wave in the wine tourism sector.

The Edivo Vina winery in Drače, about an hour north of Dubrovnik, is offering visitors the chance to slip on a wetsuit for a visit to its “underwater cellars”! To add to the interest, it also has bottles stored in a sunken ship at the bottom of the Mali Ston Bay. Ivo and Anto Šegović and Edi Bajurin owns the winery.

The initial process of wine making starts at Edivo Vina, which is above the ground. The grapes are harvested from the vines around Drače and aged for three months on land. They are then transferred to specially made amphorae – clay jugs, based on vessels used in Ancient Greece. Inside, they are coated with a thin layer of resin. These amphorae are then placed inside padlocked cages and left at a depth of 20 metres in the Adriatic Sea. According to its makers, this gives the wine a ‘pinewood aroma’.

To prevent water damage, the wine is corked and covered in two layers of rubber before being submerged. Divers check in on it every 10 days, examining each submerged amphora to make sure no seawater has penetrated into the wine.

According to the owners, the underwater conditions provide the perfect environment and temperature for their wine. It was in 2013 when the first amphorae went underwater.

When the amphorae emerge from the depth, they are covered in shells, barnacles and other sea life organism and give a buried treasure look. With a £270 price tag, it is can be an interesting choice for the wine tourists.