By coincidence I have continued my recent theme of using film titles for our blog… I posted some time ago about underwater wine ageing, but now it appears that in the United States the FDA have expressed some new concerns about the practice. The Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has issued an advisory saying water pressure could cause contaminants to seep into the bottles.

“Overpressure on bottle seals increases the likelihood of seepage of sea water into the product, and biological growth on the container may contribute to the degradation of the cork which could contaminate the product when the bottle is opened”. The advisory warned that contaminants from petrol and oil to pesticides and heavy metals can sometimes be found in sea water.

For the time being the FDA will not approve labels for any underwater aged wine until more tests have been carried out. This ban will not change anything at  Castro Martin, as of course, we don’t use this method for ageing any of our wines, but I do know that there are at least one or two other Galician bodegas that may be affected.By coincidence I have continued my recent theme of using film titles for our blog… I posted some time ago about underwater wine ageing, but now it appears that in the United States the FDA have expressed some new concerns about the practice. The Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has issued an advisory saying water pressure could cause contaminants to seep into the bottles.

“Overpressure on bottle seals increases the likelihood of seepage of sea water into the product, and biological growth on the container may contribute to the degradation of the cork which could contaminate the product when the bottle is opened”. The advisory warned that contaminants from petrol and oil to pesticides and heavy metals can sometimes be found in sea water.

For the time being the FDA will not approve labels for any underwater aged wine until more tests have been carried out. This ban will not change anything at  Castro Martin, as of course, we don’t use this method for ageing any of our wines, but I do know that there are at least one or two other Galician bodegas that may be affected.