Croatian Winery Offers Undersea Cellar Tours

Croatian Winery Offers Undersea Cellar Tours

It’s not unusual when visiting a European winery to take a tour of the wine cellar before tasting some of the wines. But there’s one winery in Croatia where you’ll need to put on a wetsuit to visit the wine cellar — because it’s under the sea!

The Edivo Winery is located in the village of Drače, about one hour from the city of Dubrovnik. Here, if you have a diving certification, you can take a scuba diving tour of the underwater cellar — which is located on a sunken ship 14 meters under the sea.

And after a dive, you can enjoy a wine tasting with some tasty snacks at the Edivo wine bar.

But why keep wine under the sea?

The founders of the Edivo Winery believe the constant cool temperature, lack of sunlight, and silence under the sea create perfect conditions for aging wine. However, it took them a few years of research to figure out how to do this successfully.

The bottles are corked, and to keep seawater out, they’re sealed with two layers of rubber. Some bottles are also put inside a kind of clay jug called an amphora, which looks very much like the amphoras that ancient Greeks and Romans used.

Such ancient jugs can be found very easily under the sea in this area, so the Edivo Winery uses amphoras partly as a tribute to local history — but also because they stop the sunlight from reaching the bottles.

Wines of the same year and variety can be aged three different ways: in a traditional cellar on land, in a bottle underwater, or in an amphora underwater — resulting in very different flavors.

Even if you don’t want to take a scuba diving tour, you can still try these wines in the Edivo wine bar, and maybe take home a unique souvenir — a bottle of wine or an amphora covered in coral and seashells!

Pelješac is famous for top quality wines, and at the same time in its surrounding sea there are numerous amphora sites. All this is combined in the Navis Mysterium or the Secrets of the Sea – wine in amphoras that has already caused interest in Croatia as well as abroad, says the Croatian national TV

A Land of Stories (about Edivo pages 98-100) You may read the full story hear

The auction "More than wine 2016" („Više od vina 2016”) gathered reputable winemakers from the region. Edivo wines were one of the participants, and Navis Mysterium was sold as the most expensive wine. The best part is that all the sales revenue from the auction is intended for projects aimed at improving education and developing

‘I love my wine so much, ill dive into the deep, very deep, blue sea for it’ is a statement that does not impress anyone who has read this article. For someone who believes adventure feeds the soul needs to read this very carefully. Croatia’s Edivo Winery are making its wines extra special and unique

Robert Makowicz about Edivo Winery. You may read the full story hear

Winemakers Age Bottles of Red Below Adriatic Sea for 700 Days for ‘Flavor of the Ocean’ You may read the full story hear

Janjina 62, 20246 Janjina Pelješac peninsula Croatia – Hrvatska

Drače 18, 20246 Drače Pelješac peninsula Croatia – Hrvatska