Pappas Bros. adds bottles of “buried treasure” to their wine list – a sparkling wine aged underwater in the Italian Riviera

Lacking storage space to age his sparkling wines in 2008, Italian winemaker Piero Lugano, then 63, struck upon a novel idea: he’d submerge his stash in an underwater cellar, 200 feet deep in the Italian Riviera. There, he’d age his Ligurian wines, a blend of indigenous bianchetta and vermentino grapes, in a twist on the classic pas dosè method of Champagne.

“It’s better than even the best underground cellar, especially for sparkling wine,” Lugano told the NY Times in 2011. ‘The temperature is perfect, there’s no light, the water prevents even the slightest bit of air from getting in, and the constant counter pressure keeps the bubbles bubbly. Moreover, the underwater currents act like a crib, gently rocking the bottles and keeping the lees moving through the wine.”

Thirteen months later, the bottles of 2008 Bisson “Abissi” Methodo Classico were retrieved and put on the market.

“When we began to lift the cages,” Mr. Lugano continues in the NY Times piece, “all kinds of sea creatures came rushing out. Some remained.” Adds the Times, “The bottles were covered with algae, seaweed and barnacles, all of it carefully cleaned, dried and preserved on the bottle in a plastic sheath. (Some even had oysters, shrimp and starfish attached to them.)”

Intrigued, Barb Werley, the master sommelier who directs the wine program at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse in Dallas, acquired a case of the 2011 vintage for the restaurant. If you’re looking for a bottle with a story, this one’s a best selling novel. A bottle of the sea faring bubbles will set you back about $150 a bottle.