Shipwrecks & Sangiovese
On a recent Saturday morning, two very different boats set out from Santa Barbara Harbor, both headed for the same destination over a mile offshore. On board an 85-foot custom catamaran with etched crystal windows and a polished, double-wide wood bar, the guests were a mixture of preppy-chic locals and well-heeled LA types dressed in limited-edition athleisure collaborations. The other boat, a working commercial fishing vessel, was loaded with gear and a team of divers in thick wet suits.
Leading the dive team was Emanuele Azzaretto, founder, along with Jordane Andrieu and Todd Hahn, of Ocean Fathoms, a California company that for the last year had been aging a cache of 1,800 bottles of 2016 Santa Ynez Sangiovese on the ocean floor, about 70 feet down. Once retrieved, guests on the catamaran were invited for an unusual tasting, comparing bottles from the same vintage—some aged conventionally, the others laid down in the dark, cold waters that Ocean Fathoms
