CORAL WINE | Underwater Wine Cellar | EMBRACE CROATIA
Aging wine cellar under the surface of the Adriatic sea.
We were invited to film a winery located under the sea right at the bottom of the Adriatic Sea, near the island of Pag.
At first we thought that it was exclusively a tourist attraction, that the bottles aged at the bottom of the sea do not experience a change in taste like bottles aged in a "dry" cellar, that capturing the Coral signature on the glass of the bottle is exclusively a form of art, a souvenir for tourists...
However, we had no idea how wrong we were, we had no idea how much knowledge, technical performance, will, losses and patience it takes to get the experience to create something like Coral Wine aged bottle of wineβ¦
Letβs start from the beginning...
Coral wine is the first and most technically advanced company dealing with wine aging at the bottom of the sea.
The most advanced in general in the synergy of the process of combining eny edible fine dining products and the sea, because Marko DuΕ‘eviΔ, the owner of Coral Wine, is a shellfish grower, some of the delicacies we knowΒ before...
However, Marko has been working with the Coral Wine βdream" for about ten years and to date has dived, aged and lifted over 20,000 bottles.
Marko is not a winemaker, although with the knowledge he could be one without any problems..
Marko is a diver, professional one.
Whenever he has time he travels around the world, visits wineries and selects the labels of other winemakers, which he then soaks, ages and returns to the market.
The winemakers with whom Coral Wine cooperates are the cream of the crop, but on the condition that the output price of the bottle after aging must not be beyond the reach of the average restaurant guestβs paying power.
A week after the filming of Coral Wine, we were at a boutique hotel in Zadar, Bastion.
For a business lunch... We immediately noticed a Coral Wine bottle in the main showcase and were amazed that the price of a Coral bottle was only 3/5 of the more expensive bottles in hotel...
We rewound all the recordings of the day we recorded Marko, Coral Wine and listened to them twice to get closer to understanding the business process, the philosophy of Coral Wine, that is, the story of Marko DuΕ‘eviΔ.
This realization did not reach our processor because on the day of the recording, "Bura" blew, and when "Bura" blows the brain, that is, the processor does not catch...
Marko is not a typical Dalmatian diver, a cup grower, thus a very typical Dalmatian child of the sea who does not live in prosperity.
One day ten years ago, Marko and his winemaker friend came up with the idea to sink a bottle of wine for a year purely out of curiosity, which and it did not result in success, but the idea was born, dalmatian persistence is there, and there were no more deviations from the plan.
The plan was to age the bottles of wine at the bottom of the sea with the aim of obtaining the same or better effect of aging in a classic "dry" cellar.
And so Marko dived and dived and dived every day for several years until he mastered the previously non-existent aging technique.
If you are not familiar with the territory of the island of Pag, the city of Zadar, you should know that the wind "Bura" that blows, is unbearable for people who have double clothes and four jackets onΒ them...
βBura" is so unbearable when blows that there is no one on the street, everything is empty... Except for the wooden platform around the island of Pag where Marko and his friends are preparing to dive in order to take control of their winery.
Day by day, year by year.
Marko;
βCoral Wine is not a label for the privileged, the purpose and philosophy is to be a label for lovers"!
The next day, after listening to all the interviews, we went to meet Marko at Coral WineΒ ground βdry"Β office, which is located 30 minutes' drive from the center of Zadar, to say what we caught, to brag...
Marko put two bottles of wine on the table (same label) βpaired wines" - a label from the cellar was poured into one glass, and the same label was poured into the other glass but aged in the sea, both for 240 days.
Conclusion?!
The conclusion is the beginning of the submarine renaissance and shouting
"long live the King Marko!β
The King of the underwater wine world!
