Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas add water to their wine. And it’s a good thing.
Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas were, it says here, voted as “the world’s best underwater wine cellar and restaurant.” I mean… that’s not going to be a long list of candidates, is it? Saying that, it’s probably quite stiff competition so, er, as you were.
Anyway. Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas has launched a new underwater-aged wine tasting experience, and it all happens six metres below the Indian Ocean’s surface. The hotel’s SEA restaurant does what it says on the tin and is surrounded by near 360-degree views of the local marine life. For this new experience, guests get to sample Dom Perignon champagne that has been aged submerged in open water for 365 days.
As an experiment a few years back, the hotel submerged 12 bottles of Dom Perignon 2008 vintage champagne in this manner. When retrieved, the champagnes had gained distinct flavour notes such as seaweed, minerals, and salinity in its taste, perfectly complementing the classic citrus, brioche, and nutty characters of Dom Perignon.
The experiment is repeated annually, and the project has been extended to 22 exceptional wines, including Umbria IGT ‘Cervaro della Sala’ Chardonnay, Castello della Sala 2018 and Chassagne-Montrachet, Morgeot Les Fairendes VV, Francois Jouard 2014 975. To understand the ageing process of these sunken wines, Anantara Kihavah periodically conducts comparative tastings between an underwater-aged wine and a cellar-aged wine to determine the distinct changes in flavours and components.
The private underwater-aged wine tasting experience starts from 2,455 USD (approx. £1,993) for two people, while villas at Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas start from £1,100 per night with breakfast. For further details, and bookings, the website can be found right here…
Neil Davey
Neil Davey is a freelance writer specialising in things you can do sitting down, but mostly eating, drinking, travelling and interviewing the odd famous person. The author of The Bluffer's Guide To Chocolate, Neil also writes for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Metro, Delicious Magazine, Sainsbury's Magazine, Escapism, Foodism and Hello!. Thanks to a karaoke machine in Montana, he once told a billionaire that he loved his sweet little pussycat nose and sang I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For with a Hollywood star, in the space of 15 minutes. He now generally stays away from karaoke machines in Montana.