Julie Benau // feat. in PUNCH Magazine

A New Extreme for Underwater Wine Aging

by Zachary Sussman

The discovery of the ocean as an ideal cellar has yielded a rash of new underwater-aged wines—but many of them are no different from their land-aged brethren. Zachary Sussman on one very notable exception: Julie Benau’s Libero, a picpoul aged for six months in barrels submerged in an oyster bed.

“The difference between the typical picpoul and the Libéro is shocking,” Benau mentions. This comes across almost like an understatement, since the wine tastes so startlingly original: somewhere between a lees-aged Muscadet and a denser Rhône white, but with a bit of seaweed and petrol (in a good way) mixed in. “As a result of this intensive aging, the wine is richer and the aromas more complex.”

Read the entire article here.