A French town that ages wine in the sea | Hacker News Reader

A French town that ages wine in the sea

bbc.com

74 pointsMiriamWeiner11 comments

> Beyond the initial resonance of the idea of sea-aging wine, there’s also a science to the process that Heude and his friends pegged with sheer intuition. Off the coast of Brittany, the temperature of the ocean floor hovers at 9-10C – the equivalent temperature of a deep wine cellar – while the water shields the wine from damaging UV rays. Plus, the twice-daily ebb and flow of some of the biggest tides in Europe mirror a technique used to age wine, particularly Champagne, known as remuage. The process of slowly tilting wine as it ages keeps the sediment from settling on the sides and bottom of the bottle and maintains the visual clarity of the wine.

Pretty cool.

Linie Aquavit advertises that it ages its spirits on ships going around the world (because sea air at different latitudes causes different aging characteristics). You can enter the serial number from your individual bottle to see what ship it was aged on and what route it traveled. It is totally unclear to me whether this is just a marketing gimmick or if there is an actual difference, I just don't have the palate to know for sure.

But on casks on a boat is a little different than at the literal bottom of the sea, so this article still managed to surprise me. Haha.

Jefferson sells bourbon using the same gimmick, they've had several batches at this point.

barrel aging in differing climates does cause different aging characteristics, due to how the liquid enters and exits the oak, but I'm unsure if doing so in a temperature controlled warehouse would impart the same thing.

Kelt cognac as well.

Not bad, but is it really better than ones that did not do it? I don't think so.

Lots of this makes sense - stable temperature, lack of UV, etc. some of it OTOH smacks of cryo-treated platinum tipped HDMI cables amongst audiophiles:

“As the tides move the natural sediment in the bottle, the flavour notes of the wine deepen. The effect is particularly enthralling with sparkling wine, as the changing tides refine the carbon dioxide bubbles to a crisp finish”

Status-goods marketing at its finest. I remember that this article gave me a lot of insight on the industry: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/expensive-chocolate-ec...

Agreed although there are probably easier ways to achieve stable temperatures, e.g. a cellar.

The rest is definitely marketing hype. For remuage the sparkling wine bottles are slowly tipped from horizontal to vertical so that the sediment gathers at the cork end. The sediment can then be removed and the bottle recorked. There should be very little or no sediment in wine that's for sale.

It’s a great town. Especially like the amount of (complete) families being on the beach on workdays. While the rest of the world is working itself to death they’re playing with their kids on a beach.

I just got back from the Cayman Islands and there is a distillery that ages their rum the same way. Called Seven Fathoms rum becasue it is suspended seven fathoms under the surface in old whiskey barrels for three years, they do it for the cool temps, low uv, minimal evaporation, and because the ocean agitates it and mixes the contents.

Interesting! I've been staying in Dinard (across the river from Saint-Malo) for over a month now and had no idea they did this!

If one is in the area of St. Malo, and has an interest in alternative energy, this is worth a trip: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rance_Tidal_Power_Station

Reversible turbines generate on tidal flows both in & out, river flow out, and can pump water upriver for energy storage. Low head, but interesting tech for the 1960s.

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