‘Underwater wines’ make a splash in Costa del Sol

DEEP in the Mediterranean you might find vibrant ocean wildlife, beautiful coral, maybe a shipwreck… but a decent Cabernet? A new fad has hit winemaking markets around the world,  and now Spain is included. It’s called underwater aging. A Ronda bodega run by esteemed winemaker Federico Schatz has embraced the radical new process, aging some of its prime vintages in the Mediterranean Sea. The man in charge of the ‘Bodega Submarina’ project is Mr Antonio Martinez, who was generous enough to give the Olive Press the lowdown on his favourite science experiment. He explained that the bottles lie off the coast of Marbella, near the Puerto de la Bajadilla, where they are submersed 20m beneath the surface.