Next time you plan to treat your taste buds with a bottle of M. Hostomme champagne, make sure it’s done a stint at the bottom of the sea first.
When it comes to wine, we all know you’re supposed to store bottles in a dark, cool place to allow them to maintain and perhaps even improve their profile. Champagne house M. Hostomme has taken things to a rather extreme next level, aging its M. Hostomme Abysse, a 100 percent Chardonnay Grand Cru wine, for a year in 200 ft of water off the coast of southern France.
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After fermentation in stainless steel tanks and Burgundy French oak, and a further four years on the lees, this spectacular M. Hostomme wine is submerged in locked cages off a remote island. The deep sea’s constant temperature of 12-degrees Celcius and the total darkness at these depths offers the perfect environment for the Champagne to refine its bead and mature.
As you can imagine, aging the wine in such a fashion makes M. Hostomme Abysse a rather rare item – production is strictly limited, with each bottle – which comes presented in a beautiful box, complete with barnacles and mud still in place – priced at US$1,900, if you can find it.
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If you do, expect touches of caramelized peach and toasted almonds on the palate, and mandarin oranges and chocolate on the nose.
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