Hidden Valley goes the extra ‘sea’- mile

HIDDEN VALLEY WINES TO LAUNCH SHIPWRECK SHIRAZ 2009

IF lighthouses could speak, the one at Cape Agulhas would have a million stories to tell.

The structure has seen countless wrecks and rescues since it was built in 1848 but it would surely have been astonished to see a group of people apparently sinking an enormous concrete “coffin” about two kilometres from the shore on 1 December 2010 … only to raise it 15 months later!

This was no bizarre burial at sea but rather what would become a maverick South African winemaker’s inadvertent but serendipitous cap-doffing to his family history in a quest to extend the boundaries of his profession. In fact, the “coffin” was a submersible wine-cellar and its contents will eventually be sold as Hidden Valley Wines’ limited release Shipwreck Shiraz 2009 and you can follow the journey of this special wine here

During 1947, about 100 kilometres from where the 2.5 ton reinforced “coffin” was later lowered into the waves, the Merasheen became one of the myriad shipwrecks along the Southern Cape coast. This unremarkable fishing vessel has little place in history other than for the fact that it brought Major Charles Richard “Dick” Hidden to South Africa from Britain after World War Two.

“My father was determined to find a passage to South Africa in order to be reunited with his sweetheart, my mother, who he’d met in Durban when his regiment sailed in convoy to Egypt,” recounts Dave Hidden, owner of Hidden Valley Wines. “All serviceable British vessels were still under the flag of the Royal Navy but the Merasheen, a converted minesweeper was barely seaworthy so it was overlooked by the authorities. It advertised for paying crew to sail to Cape Town in 1946 and my father paid £300.00 for a voyage that became a nine-month adventure of the seas. The Merasheen and my father’s adventurous journey to SA is embedded in our family history.  We have had it told to us by my father and his friends who were fellow travellers.  The name Merasheen, was always known to myself but I had no idea as to what happened to it after my father and his friends sailed into Cape Town harbour in 1946.  It was quite by chance that I saw the name on an old Agulhas shipwreck chart and I was astounded to discover that it went down approx. 100 kilometres from where I had sunk the Shipwreck Shiraz into the Agulhas current.”

Sixty years later and completely unaware that the Merasheen’s final resting place was close by, Dave Hidden bought a grape farm at Elim. Whilst visiting the nearby Cape Agulhas lighthouse one day, he had an idea. “Looking around me I thought: ‘Why grow grapes down here and take them back to our cellars in Stellenbosch? Why not make the wine but mature it right here under the sea?”

His idea became an inspiration: “As just about everybody knows, Cape Agulhas is not only the southernmost tip of Africa it is also the spot where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet,” says Hidden. “I decided to make the sea an integral part of the wine-making process in a way that had never been attempted before. If you go to places such as Islay off the west coast of Scotland, whisky-makers leave their maturation barrels on the quayside. The waves crash over them and infuse them with the flavours of the sea. No-one, however, has matured wine whilst still in barrels below the waves.”

Hidden sought people who could provide relevant technical assistance on how to sink a barrel of wine into rough sea, thereby creating a unique maritime maturation cellar for his 2009 Shiraz. “Superior red wines need to be oak-matured at consistent temperatures and humidity. Underwater at Cape Agulhas is an ideal, natural environment:  the temperature is consistently around 13ºC and the humidity is constant! “. The major challenge was to immerse the barrel in the sea but prevent the wine from being contaminated by salt water. A container had to be built that would withstand high pressures and vigorous wave action. “There is also high incidence of marine poaching in the area, so the wine needed to be secured from opportunistic theft,” he says.

A 225-litre strengthened French oak barrique was entombed in a reinforced concrete cask, into which holes had been designed. These allowed seawater to enter, circulate and permeate the oak. The heavy casing simultaneously prevented the barrique from being shattered by underwater currents and, thanks also to a massive lid secured with stainless steel bolts, acted as a deterrent to marine poachers. A great white shark-breeding area was chosen to further protect the maturing wine from poachers.

“The swell at Agulhas can exceed eight metres and the currents are easily powerful enough to shift submerged structures, even 12.5 metres below the surface,” says Hidden. “In addition, we chose a rocky reef to ensure the heavy container did not sink into the soft sand of the sea bottom.”

After 15 months submerged in the Agulhas currents, the barrel was retrieved on 9 March 2012. Winemaker Emma Moffat and an anxious cellar staff carefully opened the sea-weathered, barnacle-encrusted barrique. “To our immense relief and joy, the wine had survived its ordeal wonderfully. It was recently put into specially imported bottles and stored in the bottle-maturation cellar,” says Hidden.

For those who finally uncork the bottles and decant the contents into their glasses, there awaits a last, incontrovertible boast: they are enjoying a wine from the southernmost cellar in Africa – the only one watched over by sharks, the wreck of the Merasheen and a lighthouse that has now seen it all.

The Shipwreck Shiraz 2009 sells at R900 per bottle.

For more information on Hidden Valley Wines contact Tel: +27 21 880 2646 Email: info@hiddenvalleywines.co.za
www.hiddenvalleywines.com
www.facebook.com/hiddenvalleywines
www.twitter.com/HVwines

Address: T4 Route, Off Annandale Road, R44, Stellenbosch

GPS
S 34,1,15.3
E 18,51,13.9

Open for tastings Mon-Sun 09h00 – 17h00

Source: Press Release

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