A New Underwater Winery Opens up in Croatia

Just an hour north of Dubrovnik, wine-lovers will find the Edivo Vina winery in Drače on the scenic Pelješac peninsula. At this unique winery, bottles are being aged under the sea.

“After being aged for three months, [Edivo Vina’s] wines are stored in clay jugs known as “amphorae” under the sea for 1-2 years,” explains Lonely Planet. “In addition to wine from amphorae, there are also wine bottles that are ‘aged’ in the Adriatic sea. The sunken boat is used as an underwater cellar and it keeps the amphorae for 700 days at a temperature of 15 to 17 degrees.”

That sunken boat is a historic shipwreck found at the bottom of Croatia’s Mali Ston Bay. Guests to the Edivo Vina winery have the option to take a dive to see, firsthand, the underwater wine cellars stored on the boat.

The inspiration for storing wine underwater came to the owners of Edivo Vina five years ago, who believe the Adriatic sea offers a natural cooling process and ultimately improves the quality and taste of their wines.

“Each bottle is unique, real unique, the product of great love, effort and time,” write the owners on their site. Edivo Vina encapsulates the essence of Croatia with wines aged in the Adriatic sea, stored in clay jars baked in Petrinja, using pinewood boxes from Varaždin. “Everything is pure Croatian product,” the owners say.

To protect their wines from the salt water, “all of the bottles are corked, and two layers of rubber are added to prevent saltwater from leaking in—and wine from leaking out,” reports CN Traveler. “The amphorae are then packaged in cages and locked to prevent any unwanted divers from taking the unique brand of alcohol to-go.”

In addition to the novelty of tasting sea-aged wine, the amphorae are typically retrieved covered in corals, shells, and sea fauna that make for a spectacular souvenir from this one-of-a-kind winery.