What is Sea Aged Sparkling Wine?

You may have seen, during your searches for new wines, some which are stated to have been aged in / under the sea. So, ‘why are wines aged in the sea’ and ‘are they really worth the money’?

Some of the most exciting wines on the market, especially to old vintage collectors and connoisseurs of wines, are those found from previous shipwrecks which have rested on the ocean floor for several decades or more. These wines have been found to be in excellent aged condition and still very drinkable.

“Jönköping was salvaged in 1998, its cargo held the 1907 Heidsieck & Co. Monopole “Goût Américain“, a Champagne which was also served on the famous Titanic (ironically also sunk in 1912). Fortunately, due to the perfect pressure and temperature deep in the Baltic Sea, many of the original 3,000 Champagne bottles made it through this 90-year transcendence of time safely, with corks intact and no leakage. Priced at approximately £111,500 per bottle, source: Atlas Bar

These discoveries have opened up a whole new way in which to age wines, moving from the traditional dark and damp cellars that accompany many of the finest wine makers globally. Both still wines from Barolo to Chianti to sparkling from English and Champagne labels are now being sold with ‘sea ageing’, with many wine experts believing them to offer a better overall complexity / flavour.

“Storing wines in the sea can speed the ageing of the wine, yet maintaining a balanced and more reliable / safer process, especially thanks to the added pressure put on the bottle to keep all the goodness inside. Sometimes this pressure can be equal to that within the bottle and salt minerals might enter the wine via the cork, adding a ‘taste of the sea’ character which I have noted in some examples.” Christopher Walkey, founder of glassofbubbly.com

As these bottles sit, usually within cages, on the ocean / sea floor, they embrace the characters from below influenced by constant temperature, darkness, movement (sway) and pressure, as well as taking on many barnacles and additional crustaceans. Visually, these bottles can look far more appealing, selling wise, compared to the original released bottles.

“When divers exploring an 1840s shipwreck off the coast of the Finnish Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea discovered 168 bottles of Champagne, which were subsequently extracted by the Åland regional government, something extraordinary was revealed. Some of the bottles of that Veuve Clicquot Champagne, brought up in 2010 from the Baltic Sea, later sold for as much as $30,000 apiece.” source Grape Collective

Since around 2009, the process of ageing wines in seas and oceans has been a growing activity from wine makers and thus helping to grow interest from wine critics and wine buyers.

 

Where to buy sea and ocean aged sparkling wine from Mare Santo?

Soon to be available in the UK and US markets, these amazing looking and gold winning wines will be available from Connoisseur Vintners (in the UK initially). Prices to be confirmed – please email christopher@glassofbubbly.com for more information.

Mare Santo Winery won the Sustainable Winery of the Year at the 2025 Glass of Bubbly Awards.