Driving the long winding roads perched along the edge of cliffs with the Adriatic sea slapping at the rocks and pebbles beside the shore, you’ll eventually find yourself passing through small, family run oyster farms with sprawling vineyards dotted on the hills that seemingly emerge from the sea without warning. This is the Pelješac Peninsula in Croatia’s southern wine region.
We found ourselves taking unexpected hairpin turns with locals taking them at rather unexpected speeds. We rented a little Fiat 500 from Dubrovnik, loaded all of our luggage into the boot and backseats and then traveled the 85km to the most exciting wine adventure that we’ve had to date (perhaps chasing wild elephants out of the vineyards in Thailand is also up there! – more on that later).
Within the Pelješac Peninsula, there are a handful of wineries operating and crafting distinguished wines from local varieties. Perhaps the most iconic is the Plavac Mali, descendant of Tribidrag (also known as Zinfandel) and Dobričić. The name is given due to the characteristics of the little blue berries that the vine produces, ‘plavac’ means blue and ‘mali’ being small. Plavac Mali! The resulting wine is high in alcohol due to the sunny slopes it thrives in, and high in tannin – it’s bold structure is harmonized by the fruit forward characteristics and peppery notes it so proudly exhibits.
The winding road brings us to our first wine adventure of the day – Edivo Vina. Edivo Vina is a small, innovative winery located within a small fishing village that has been producing wine since 2011. At the very beginning of their start in the wine industry they were captivated by the ancient method of storing wine in an underwater cellar and so in 2013 they placed their first amphoraes and bottles beneath the surface after taking ownership of a thirty year old shipwreck at the bottom of the sea. The amphoraes and bottles are placed at a depth of 18 – 25 metres for more than two years, with a constant temperature of 15C degrees (the perfect cellar for your wines to age!). Each bottle is unique as the little sea critters, algae, shells and coral attach themselves to their new home.
Intially, Edivo Vina had difficulty with their wines aged in amphorae underwater as the porous material allowed salty seawater to permeate and affect the wine quality. Although salinity can be a characteristic of some wines, diluted flavours from seawater should not be! Interestingly, a standard cork could not withstand the pressure of the ocean and therefore, after some research, handcrafted amphoraes were fashioned to be able to fit a glass bottle in them which was sealed with a cork and needed 2 layers of wax to provide the perfect defence. Seemingly, this takes away the purpose of clay amphorae but makes for a pretty cool looking vessel to have in your own above-water cellar.
Edivo has aptly decided to name these unique wines, the ‘Navis Mysterium’ translating into The Sea Mystery and after our dive into the deep blue – a better name could not be commanded of the underwater aged wines.
A few months after we we went diving for our Plavac Mali, they decided to add a new wine to their underwater cellar. A white blend that I would definitely jump off a boat to get my hands on! The white blend is a combination of Posip, Chardonnay and Rukatac. These white wines are stored at a greater depth of around 30m as the temperatures needed for maturing white wine must be cooler, these wines are also only aged for around six months. Another exciting white blend coming out of Croatia’s coastal wine region!
After road-tripping for a short hour and a half with the windows down, Hollow Coves playing on a phone because the Bluetooth *obviously* wasn’t working and singing way over the volume that any phone could hope to produce, we finally rounded the last corner and were greeted by the deep blue Adriatic. A small fishing harbour jutted out like a little oasis appearing after close encounters with local drivers and steep drops.
We met the diving instructor for our adventure, we kitted up with wetsuits. flippers and goggles! The perfect gear for what we were about to literally dive into. Little did we know, we were about to have the wine tourism experience of our life!
We scramble onto a small boat that’s almost more of a supped up dinghy, the light was starting to get softer and the wind was only gently grabbing at my hair. We head out into the horizon, with the water parting ways at the nose of the boat and the only thing we’re leaving behind is the ripples of the water lapping at the pebbled beaches of the Adriatic.
Gliding along the water, you couldn’t help but feel like you’ve been let in on an age old tradition, a secret society with a secret location of their liquid treasure far below the surface of where little fisherman boats bob along, and fish swim unknowingly among wine. The water of the Adriatic is eerily calm, as if it’s quietening down to let you hear the whispers of the deep below.
We asked the diving instructor how she always knew where the location of the wines were – “you can feel where the wine wants you to be, it’s guiding you”. I love that. Despite knowing the exact location of the wines, I believe it’s true – you will always feel the pull of wine waiting to be discovered, to be known and to be shared.
We were given a few safety lessons – taught some diving sign language (it’s probably better than my French!). And off we went! Into the big deep blue to find the only treasure that ever really matters. To find a wine that has lived a tale worth sharing, it’s very existence lends itself to my phislosophy. There is wine being made on the fringe of ‘conventional’, it’s inspiring and so deserving and worthy of our time and yet, here I am, the only person on a boat about to do the unimaginable. Why aren’t more people aware of this, why aren’t more people searching and yearning for this? I’m discovering my very own wine aged under the sea and I know there is still so much more to discover in the world of wine.
After a few twists and turns, lots of learning curves, we were both gliding through the water breathing like fish do. We drifted through forests of coral that were slowly swaying in the sea reaching up as if to grab the filters of sunlight shining through the surface. We saw starfish and schools of fish, welcoming us into their own world. We swam through tight rocks and under arches. Some of the boats that used to bob along the horizon were now at the depths where our wine had been maturing for nearly 2 years, some 18 – 25m below.
After gliding through the water, you are greeted by the sight of a submerged vessel that is guarding your treasure of wine. You’re allowed to peruse over the selection of wines and choose a bottle that ‘guides you the most’. We selected a bottle that had a fair amount of sea coral and shells attached, a bottle that had a story to share. The experience is very much like walking the aisles of your local supermarket and putting your hand out to grab a wine based on the prettiest label but it is also very much different as you breathe underwater watching fish swim between the bottles of wine you’re floating above.
After finding our wine and trying to stay grounded long enough for a snapshot, we pushed off and resurfaced (some more like whales than others). The colours of the sky had gotten deeper, with the light that was once dancing on the surface of the water now a cloudless pink.
Scuba diving to a depth of 25 metres to hand-select our own wine that had been aging beneath the surface for nearly 2 years is an experience I never thought existed. But it does exist. Edivo Vina has so delicately crafted the Plavac Mali that finds itself being placed in amphoraes beneath the water, and has expertly designed this experience that you really do find yourself being ‘guided’ by the wine to the only place where it lies waiting to be discovered.
So let me ask you, have you ever been scuba diving to discover your own wine lying beneath the surface? If not, when are you going?
Because the wine lying at the bottom of the Adriatic is waiting for you…
Chasing wine in every corner of the world,
Tristyn
Edivo Vina
info@edivovina.hr
Pelješac Peninsula, Croatia