Some of you may start humming Ringo Starrs nasal deliverance of the famous Beatles song Others who have no recollection may be curious to know of octopus hunting and gathering which took place off the beach of Kamari on the eastern Santorini shoreline
Each year Gaia Wines founding partner Yiannis Paraskevopoulos submerges a palette of his Thalassitis Santorini The depth is about 1820m Violent winter storms may drag the metal cage full of bottles away from where they originally land Some survive intact some break up a few spill out onto the seabed Apart from the publicity it brings the main point of this exercise is to find out if these bottles age differently than the same wine ageing in a cellar on land Guess what
There is a difference More about this in a tasting post
Back to the Octopus Something extraordinary happened while a BBC film crew were diving with Paraskevopoulos to retrieve some bottles to be tasted What this dive found was a scene only nature could deliver Far removed from the cage they found a bottle of Thalassitis 2010 with its neck wedged in the sand The experienced underwater cameramen were amazed as they realized what had happened The resourceful octopus had dragged the bottle back to his thalami habitat The octopuss garden was littered with shellfish debris around the bottle
Regrettably said octopus was unsuccessful in his wine tasting event because the bottle was too large to enter his house If Paraskevopoulos continues with his marine endeavours perhaps we shall witness octopus evolution changing the course of wine history