Ocean-Aged Wine Torpedoed by Feds

March 20, 2015 — Remember we told you about Mira Winery of Napa aging its wines in Charleston Harbor last year? You can read all about the experiment and the subsequent tasting here.

The wine named “Aquaoir” turned out well, as we reported, and the 12 bottles that were released to wine club members of the 2009 vintage sold out immediately.  So Jim Dyke, Mira’s president, announced they would age twice as many bottles for twice as long starting next month.  There is also other wine currently under water.

Say hello to the Federal Government.  Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau which regulates the wine industry, said not so fast.  The wine may be adulterated and illegal to sell.  The Bureau consulted the Food and Drug Administration.  They pointed out that the wine had been stored in unsanitary conditions.  The wax and cork seal may have been exposed to “Gasoline, oil, heavy metals, plastics, drug residues, pesticides, as well as various types of filth, including waste materials from biological sources, sludge, decaying organic matter, runoff from farms, effluents from sewage treatment plants, and bilge waters from vessels.”  Well, when you put it like that, it does give one pause.

Jim Dyke said he is disappointed, especially since there has been no contamination so far, and, he pointed out, it is an experiment.  Whether he can come to terms with TTB and FDA remains to be seen and he may have to shelve the whole project.  He could certainly argue that the Veuve Clicquot Champagne found in a 150-year wreck in the Baltic Sea was pronounced drinkable and sold for enormous money.  But then there was the recent find of the Civil War era wine shipwrecked off Bermuda that wasn’t so good http://wineandspirits.com/civil-war-era-wine-voted-a-loser.

We applaud him for trying and perhaps he will continue experimenting.  As long as he doesn’t sell the wine he’ll be OK with the law.  Well, we think he will be.