Even in a state known for wine innovation and a willingness to embrace new fads, it was a quirky idea: aging bottles of wine at the bottom of the ocean, about a mile off Santa Barbara.
But that is exactly what the four founders of Ocean Fathoms were doing. The company filled iron cages the size of washing machines with wines that sell in the $70 to $200 range, and lowered the bottles into the Pacific to a depth of about 70 feet. A year later, this “truly remarkable” wine, transformed by the “patented ocean aging process,” as the company’s marketing pitch says, was pulled up from the “sea cellar,” and one of the owners told me the going rate was $350 a bottle.
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Poseidon water plant permit discussion continued to next week
Daniel Selmi of the Santa Ana Regional Water Board makes a point during Friday’s virtual meeting.
(Screencap by Matt Szabo)
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Both proponents and opponents of the controversial Poseidon Water desalination plant in Huntington Beach made their voices heard Friday in an all-day virtual meeting that continued well into the night.
In the end, however, a decision by the Santa Ana Regional Water Board on whether to permit Poseidon’s $1.4-billion project will have to wait until at least next week.
Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday, with a third meeting on May 13, as necessary.