“Fishing” for Winemaking Perfection in Cloudy Waters...Underwater Wineries: Innovation Genius or Another Marketing Trick? Implications on Wine & Food Tourism

This chapter examines innovative initiatives and technological applications in food & wine tourism, as essential factors for achieving competitiveness and commercial success. To achieve this, the chapter analyses various pioneering, mainly European cases of underwater wineries. Special attention is paid on Gaia Winery and its underwater cellar, which uses underwater wine making for producing “Assyrtiko”, the indigenous grape variety from Santorini, Greece. Gaia is the first and still the only Greek wine maker producing wine underwater; Assyrtiko is produced and aged for 5 years after being submerged in the Aegean archipelagos at a depth of 25 m. The chapter starts by discussing the concept of “Aquaoir”, or “water terroir”, as a new underwater wine ageing process based on shipwreck wine preservation cases found worldwide. The chapter debates the role of underwater wineries and ageing, as an excellent alternative way of preserving wines, and as another imaginative marketing technique for developing wine tourism. To that end, the chapter discusses the implications of underwater wine making on innovating wine & food experiences (combined with marine tourism activities referred to as “Wine aqua tourism”). The role of technology in both wine making and wine aqua tourism processes are also analyzed. The chapter concludes by estimating the positive impact of innovation into the food & wine tourism related businesses and providing suggestions for policy makers to use wine aqua tourism as a way for boosting regional tourism development.