Amphorae ageing in the Med: Podere San Cristoforo’s experiment

In 2016, Tuscan estate Podere San Cristoforo decided to submerge a number of its bottles off the coast of Italy, in the Mediterranean Sea, in the first of a number of underwater wine experiments.

This initial test proved encouraging, and so the estate decided to take the project a step further. They used research from archaeological finds of wine amphorae from shipwrecks, that still had their contents intact, to inspire an experiment with submerging its own wine in terracotta amphorae.

It’s not the first time a winery has experimented with ageing wines under the sea, although Podere San Cristoforo claims it is the first winery in the modern age to attempt this using amphorae.

Other recent examples of underwater wine experiments include Rio Negro-based Wapisa submerging bottles in the Atlantic, and Austria’s Möth winery submerging stainless-steel tanks in Lake Constance.

The S’Amfora experiment

Of the S’Amfora project, owner and winemaker Lorenzo Zonin says; ‘There is a lot of work and little volumes involved. We do it because we love wine, the sea, our consumers, and challenges. We think that undersea ageing is affecting the wine so that we have something unique to taste – not necessarily better as taste is subjective.’

Terracotta at first proved inadequate as seawater was able to ingress the vessels, but it was realised that firing the clay at a much higher temperature would harden and effectively waterproof the amphorae – a process the estate is in the process of patenting, which it calls ‘S’Amfora’.

Archaeological remains show that the Romans used a variety of closures for amphorae, including green pinecones, terracotta discs, and ‘anforisco’ – ornate miniature amphorae. The mouth of the vessel would then be sealed with pozzolana, a red volcanic ash found around Pozzuoli on the Bay of Naples, which was also a key material in the production of hydraulic cement. Podere San Cristoforo has chosen to use a cork closure sealed with wax.

The first Underwater Wine Congress, held in Bilbao in December 2019, concluded that underwater ageing had several benefits: little or no light; little oxygen; little sound; and no vibrations – perfect for maturing wine.

Encouraged by the findings, Podere San Cristoforo submerged its first commercial batch of 600 x 75cl amphorae containing the estate’s 100% Petit Verdot wine, San Cristoforo 2019, at the beginning of 2020.

In contrast to S’Amfora’s underwater ageing, the estate’s regular San Cristoforo Petit Verdot matures for 10 months in used French oak barrels.

After nine months at depths ranging from 10 to 15 metres, the shell-encrusted amphorae were recovered. Lorenzo found that, ‘the sea seems to have accelerated the evolution of the Petit Verdot, which acquires complexity while maintaining its longevity. The wine is perceived more rounded than its counterpart on dry land.’

I found that the finish of the 2019 S’Amfora was not quite as long or as fresh as the 2018 vintage in bottle, and the S’Amfora also appeared denser, darker and perhaps rounder. Interestingly, it featured a hint of terracotta earthiness and minerality, and it will be interesting to see if extended ageing in the amphorae will yield a greater degree of terracotta influence as the wine interacts with its enclosure.

This batch of 600 underwater-aged amphorae was released last December for €200 each. The estate is planning to release the 2020 vintage of S’Amfora later this year.

Underwater wine: S’Amfora

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