Filters

Wine of the Sea

Wine of the Sea Ocean-Aged Wines

A happy accident led to the founding of Wine of the Sea Company. Marko Dušević, who owns an oyster farm off the coast of Croatia, had a friend who was a winemaker visit him. "He brought me some very good wines, and it was the end of the summer, and I had some bottles left," Dušević says. "I didn’t want to leave them in my summer home, where someone could break in because the house is in the wilderness. So, I put them in some oyster bags in the sea, and I forgot about them."

"A year later, I found the bottles, and they looked good, so I brought them to my friend," he says. "My friend tells me, ‘These wines are different.’ I asked, ‘What do you mean?’ He says, ‘They’re not like the original wines I have in storage here at the winery.’"

That accident led Dušević to create Adriatic Shell/Wine of the Sea, a company that exclusively ages fine European wines in the Adriatic Sea. That was ten years ago, and now, for the first time, they're being exported to the United States.

Today, Wine of the Sea "cellars" bottles, mostly Italian varietals, sourced from small independent wineries. They are then aged at depths of 100 feet in special cages, resulting in bottles with beautiful and unique coral formations. While at first glance it may seem gimmicky, this process creates near-perfect cellar conditions for the wine. The pressure at this depth, along with the constant movement of the currents, causes the wine to age at an accelerated rate, adding incredible nuance and a layered depth of flavor to the wine. The acidity drops slightly faster, and the flavors evolve from primary to secondary and tertiary more quickly; the process leaves the wines remarkably soft, round, and elegant. Truly a must-try!