Bacchus rises from sea

THIS festive season wine connoisseurs can add a unique red to their collection: a shiraz matured in the sea where two oceans meet at the southern tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas.

It is the first time that a South African winemaker has successfully matured wine in an oak barrel in the sea. The result is a limited-edition Shipwreck Shiraz 2009 that will set collectors back R900 a bottle.

But it cost Cape winemaker Dave Hidden far more than that per bottle to produce the wine, because it required engineering input from one of the world's top construction companies and intimate knowledge of the sea to bring what seemed like a far-fetched idea to fruition.

"We had to figure out how to turn the ocean of the Cape of Storms into a wine cellar," Hidden said this week.

"If we went there and just dropped a barrel into one of the fiercest seas in the world, it would have been smashed to smithereens in no time," said Hidden, speaking from Hidden Valley on the slopes of the Helderberg mountains in Stellenbosch.

"Five years ago, I bought a wine farm situated on the Elim peninsula at Cape Agulhas, the very aptly named Land's End. With its maritime climate and laterite, sandstone and shale soil, it already produced award-winning red wines. But the farm does not have a cellar. We transport the grapes to Stellenbosch and mature them there.

"One day, while visiting the historic Cape Agulhas lighthouse, I had a flash of inspiration. I thought about places such as Islay, off the west coast of Scotland, where whisky-makers leave their maturation barrels on the quayside. The waves crash over them and infuse them with the flavours of the sea.

"I wondered if it were possible to mature the wine right here under the sea - and if it could be done, how it would taste."

He asked a local diver, Martin van der Merwe, about the conditions under the ocean there and where he could place a barrel.

"Superior red wines need to be oak-matured at consistent temperatures and humidity. Underwater at Cape Agulhas seemed an ideal environment, with temperatures consistent at around 13ºC, as well as consistent humidity.

"Our biggest concern was how to stop the underwater pressure of 2.5bar from imploding the barrel. Another was securing the 225-litre oak barrel in swells strong enough to move steel."

Poachers were another worry.

He roped in Adrian Flack, who works for a marine engineering company. "We designed a reinforced concrete and stainless-steel case to hold the oak barrel. It weighed more than 2.5 tons.

"Holes were drilled in the concrete to ensure that the sea water interacted with the oak barrel. The barrel's cork had to have a special seal."

The concrete "coffin" was lifted off the beach at Struisbaai harbour and transported about 2km offshore on a barge .

Van der Merwe advised Hidden to rest the barrel on a reef 12.5m below the surface. The reef is a well-known breeding ground for great white sharks and is avoided by poachers.

Van der Merwe kept a close eye on the barrel, diving to check it at regular intervals.

Fifteen month later, on March 9 last year, the concrete lid was knocked off and the barrel floated to the surface.

"The barrel was stored here in Hidden Valley's cellar, and right after we completed the harvest we carefully opened the sea-weathered, barnacle-encrusted barrel. The moment of truth had arrived.

"I, winemaker Emma Moffat and the farm manager tasted the wine. To our surprise, we found that it tasted fantastic. It had that sea tang without being salty. Our experiment worked."

Wine taster Lofty Ellis was invited to a blind test and also liked it. Ellis said there was something in the wine that he could not put his finger on, but it was a taste he had never experienced before.

"I said 'sea.' He said that's exactly what it is," said Hidden.

The wine is being sold in a special case shaped like a treasure chest. Only 290 bottles were produced.

Hidden has trademarked the "marine maturation cellar process" but does not have plans to repeat the experiment any time soon.

eggingtons@sundaytimes.co.za