State of California Sinks Wine Brand With Charges of Illegally Fermenting Bottles On The Ocean Floor and Fraud
A California wine company was charged with illegal fermenting. The company allegedly aged bottles of wine under the sea without the proper permits. (AP Photo/Setarreh Massihzadegan)
On Friday, Ocean Fathoms, a California wine company, was charged with illegal fermenting by the city government of Santa Barbara. The brand was forced to surrender over 2,000 bottles of wine after attempting to ferment them on the ocean floor, according to USA Today.
Two of the three founders pled guilty to the three charges against the company. The charges were illegally discharging material into U.S. waters, aiding and abetting investor fraud and selling unlicensed alcohol.
Ocean Fathoms was founded by Emanuele Azzaretto, Todd Hahn and Jordane Andrieu. The local attorney’s office claimed two of the three founders were illegally dumping crates of wine a mile off the Santa Barbara Coast potentially as early as 2017. California law required permits from the state’s coastal commission or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prior to discharging materials of any kind into the sea. Neither Azzaretto nor Hahn acquired the permits, according to the attorney’s office.
The company claimed its reasoning behind aging wine under the sea was driven by “the passion for scarcity; for that rare chance to own and add a unique treasure,” and “a story.”
Ocean Fathoms claimed its process was patented, and sent its bottles of wine in cages constructed of recycled metals. The recycled metals purportedly were ionized by the salty ocean water to create an “underwater battery,” discharging “natural electricity.” According to the brand, the cages, salt water and glass bottles served as conductors, both ionizing and transforming the wine. Ocean Fathoms claimed to donate a portion of proceeds from the sales to local environmental nonprofits, but there is no record of such donations being made.
A bottle of Ocean Fathoms wine. (Photo: Ocean Fathoms/Instagram)
The cases of wine were left on the ocean floor for over a year, encouraging the growth of marine life.
The Food and Drug Administration warned wine aged underwater was not safe for human consumption due to potential threats of contamination, according to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Yet despite this ruling, Ocean Fathoms proceeded to sell its wine for about $500 a bottle.
The company allegedly sold wines without federally approved labels, a permit or business license from the ABC and was additionally charged with stiffing the state of California on sales tax.
“The motive for engaging in this unlawful operation was financial, and the People’s complaint alleged that nearly every aspect of their business was conducted in violation of state or federal law,” read the statement from the attorney’s office.
Wine-related fraud is a problem on both coasts, and instances of retailers selling unlicensed wine continue to appear in the headlines. In June, the iconic and now-defunct New York-based wine shop, Sherry-Lehmann, had its liquor license suspended by the state of New York and was raided by the FBI and NYPD.
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