There’s an Underwater Winery in Croatia and We Want to Go

So long, Atlantis. Edivo Vina, a winery off of Croatia’s Pelješac peninsula, is the answer for underwater treasure seekers and winos looking for something with a story.

Situated in Drače, a town a bit north of Dubrovnik (you might recognize it from “Game of Thrones” glory as King’s Landing), Edivo Vina keeps their wine underwater in Mali Ston Bay. At Edivo Vina, the drinking experience becomes a matter of choosing your own adventure: imbibe mermaid wine to your heart’s content, or see the winery and its processes by donning a wetsuit and going for a swim, which includes passing by a sunken boat. A bit different than your typical Napa weekend.

That Edivo Vina calls Croatia home is fitting, considering the tiny country is one of the highest consumers of wine in the world. There, they know their stuff, which is why the winery’s owners – Ivo and Anto Šegović and Edi Bajurin – saw the ocean’s potential in the winemaking process. Five years ago, inspiration struck and they saw its natural coolness and quietness found 65 feet below the surface as the ideal environment to age wine. After all, nothing says fine Bordeaux like a few barnacles on the bottle.

The Navis Mysterium, or mysterious sea wine, begins its life like its aboveground counterparts, harvested from Plavac Mali grapes around Drače. Plavac Mali is Croatia’s most popular grape, rich with notes of dark berries, pepper and spices, with higher levels of alcohol and tannins. It’s robust and deep, much like Zinfandel, one of its parent grapes.

It’s then aged on dry land for three months before being transferred to amphorae and sent into the salty Adriatic Sea for between one to two years. Amphorae, slim-necked clay jugs with two handles favored by the ancient Greeks, lend the wine strong notes of pinewood while preserving the wine’s original aromas and flavors.

Of course, the water increases the risk of leakage, but the owners have taken thorough preventative measures. A cork and two layers of rubber insulate the wine from the ocean, while divers check in on the wine every ten days. Secured cages also protect against thieves or tides. And that sunken boat you swam by earlier? It’s been transformed from a historical artifact into a cellar.

When the amphorae, and a few traditional wine bottles, are brought back up, they’re festooned with coral, shells, and other sea life, making them look like treasures dredged up from Atlantis or the Titanic wreck. That’s probably part of the reason behind the roughly $350 price tag, but despite the steep cost, we’re still crossing our fingers for an underwater tasting room.

Photo credit: Edivo Wines

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