A trip to Europe inevitably brings together great places for sightseeing and good alcohol. And if you’re lucky, it brings along both together. Croatia is now home to an underwater winery, settled below in the Adriatic Sea. Edivo Vina is about an hour north of Drubovnik in Drace, Croatia, and you must do more than just drive to get to the special winery.
Understandably, not all of the winemaking process is underwater, with a lot of the crushing and packaging having had taken place on the ground. The grapes for the wine are fermented and bottled, and then aged above the water for a period of about three months.
Next, the wine is stored in a special clay jug called amphorae and locked in cages. These clay bottles are also protected with dual rubber layering, meant to keep it away from saltwater seeping into the wine. At the winery, one can take a dive into the Adriatic Sea to watch the process of ageing. The process dates back to thousands of years when ancient Greeks put their wine in amphoras too.
Naturally, with the form of ageing, the wine is supposed to be slightly on the pricey side, with a bottle reportedly costing about £270.
