lauren
By Lauren Bray, edhat staff
Thousands of bottles of wine illegally aging on the ocean floor in the Santa Barbara Channel were confiscated and poured out.
Ocean Fathoms is a Santa Barbara-based company that works with winemakers and vineyards to age bottles of wine in their “sea cellar,” also known as the Pacific Ocean.
Santa Barbara County District Attorney John T. Savrnoch announced Wednesday that his office with assistance from the City of Santa Barbara and the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages Control (ABC), disposed of approximately 2,000 bottles of wine and other alcohol that were illegally possessed for sale by Ocean Fathoms and its principals, Emanuele Azzaretto and Todd Hahn.
Savrnoch stated the seizure was in connection with an illegal underwater wine aging and sales operation. The alcohol was disposed of at one of Santa Barbara’s wastewater treatment plants, and the glass bottles were taken for recycling.
(Photo: Ocean Fathoms)
The destruction was part of a plea agreement in which Ocean Fathoms, Hahn, and Azzaretto pled guilty to three misdemeanor criminal charges, including a violation of the Water Code for illegally discharging material into waters of the United States, selling alcohol without a license, and aiding and abetting investor fraud, Savrnoch stated.
According to the District Attorney’s Office, in 2017 Hahn and Azzaretto began sinking crates of wine one mile off the environmentally sensitive Santa Barbara coast.
For several years, the pair failed to obtain any required permits from the California Coastal Commission or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before depositing the crates on the ocean floor. They left each crate on the sea floor for one year, just long enough for a reef ecosystem to develop in the crates and on the bottles. After a year, the crates were removed, along with the sea life living in them.
The company’s website states the ocean is consistently 55 degrees and there’s no sound, oxygen, or UV light contamination while the slow movement from the current helps to move the wine inside the bottles.
“The Santa Barbara Channel offers not only the perfect environment for the aging process of wine, but is [sic] sits in a rich sea-life transition zone, where cold arctic waters meet warmer waters from the equator providing more than 100 species of flora and fauna unique to this location. The combination of flora and fauna attracts an abundance of sea-creatures and sea-life which ultimately adorn our bottles,” their website states.
Ocean floor aged wine bottles from Ocean Fathoms (Photo: Ocean Fathoms)
Their website also includes a patent number and states their recycled cages are in a beautifully symbiotic relationship with the ocean. US Patent Process #US10,611,990B1 lists Azzaretto and Kieran Maloney as inventors of an apparatus with an outer cage, an inner age, and an “array of electrodes” that accellerates alcoholic beverage maturation.
Their company, officially named 50 Fathoms LLC but doing business as Ocean Fathoms, began selling single bottles of wine for as much as $500. Most of the wine currently listed on their website are from local regions while sparkling wine is direct from France.
However, the federal Food and Drug Administration considered the wine adulterated and not fit for human consumption, because it was submerged in the ocean and potentially contaminated. The wine was also sold without any of the required federally-approved labeling.
Additionally, Ocean Fathoms was selling the wine without an ABC alcohol sales permit and without a valid business license. The company was also collecting sales tax from its customers without ever paying those taxes to the State of California.
Finally, the company advertised that it was donating a portion of its profits to a local environmental nonprofit, yet there was no evidence that any donations were ever made. The company took thousands of dollars from investors without ever disclosing that they were operating in violation of the law.
“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,” Savrnoch stated.
In addition to the destruction of their inventory, worth several hundred thousand dollars, Ocean Fathoms, Azzaretto, and Hahn are on probation with terms that prevent them from operating their business in violation of the law. They were also required to pay $50,000 in restitution to one of their investors.
“This case involved individuals who operated with complete disregard for our consumer and environmental laws. The California Coastal Commission referred the case to our Consumer and Environmental Protection Unit and, because of the broad scope of violations, we investigated with the help of five state and local agencies. The case highlights the importance of our office’s relationship with outside agencies and it demonstrates our commitment to holding companies and individuals accountable for violating all types of consumer and environmental laws,” said Savrnoch.
Below is an news story and interview with Azzaretto from CBS Morning News in August 2021:
Sounds like these guys had a good idea and were demonstrably stupid about it. Why not get all the necessary permits? Why not comply with the law? If they did then they’d really have something interesting. It’s not like they were flying under the radar. They were in the news and on TV for gosh sakes. And saying you’re donating to a nonprofit and not doing that? Tacky and cheap. According to their instagram it looks like they stiffed the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute.
I’m going to have to agree with the below quote from a 2021 LA Times article:
“A UC Davis professor of viticulture called it marketing voodoo aimed at rich people who want something in their collection to brag about.”
Forgot to mention the damage to our ocean and unnecessary killing of local sea life that th ey seem to be very cavalier about.
6:37 – right on. l read about this company a year ago and thought it was a really cool idea. Definitely something unique and a great conversation piece for get togethers. Shame that they didn’t do it legally and seem to have snubbed their noses at the law and the ecosystem. If someone can take this idea and run with it, legally and ethically, they could turn a buck or two!
7:40, still at the cost of disturbing ocean bottom and sea life. There are live animals on the crate and bottles brought up, I watched the news video which showed an octopus on the crate. Not worth it.
Plus, where’s the proof of the benefits of underwater aging? How different is it from a cave or wine cellar? Scientific ignorance or naivete strikes again.
8:26 – yeah, like I said, it would be cool if this could be done ethically and with respect for our ecosystem.
Here is a helpful article from west marine including an illustration of what your anchor line and chain looks like under the water.
https://www.westmarine.com/west-advisor/How-To-Anchor-Securely.html
Look at you! Doing some research and providing links for once! Yeah, still doesn’t seem like a “substantial amount.”
Chip, an anchor is not the same as a chain. Unless you literally make your living on the water, I suspect I have spent a lot more time than you anchoring a boat. Yes, you can do some damage if you anchor in the WRONG AREAS.
LOL, Basic, I have a license and a vessel here in the harbor and have probably spent more time on the hook than you.
“You think”.
LOL, bro, see you out there.
Chip, who obviously doesn’t understand what he is talking about said :”if you drag your anchor all over the bottom.”
You obviously failed to read my response. If you drag your anchor all over the bottom then you are in trouble. If you are swinging with the wind then you are sweeping the bottom with whatever chain you have out. If you anchor in the right place then you are doing very little if any damage. Don’t even talk to me about it man, you’re just arguing to argue, as you generally do.
Sorry Sac and Alex, you’re both wrong about your statements regarding anchoring. There are a number of books out there, to read, before you take your own vessel out to, let’s say, the Channel Islands and anchor overnight. Take a look. Chapman Piloting is one. Unless you’ve got a Captain’s license (I do), or have spent plenty of time around the islands or elsewhere overnighting (I have), I think you’re just arguing about things you don’t really know anything about.
The chain will drag all over as winds, tides, and even currents change throughout the day and night. Your boat will set in one direction and hours later it will be facing a completely different direction. And if you don’t want to lay a bunch of chain (scope) out on the bottom when you set the hook, well, you might just wake up on the rocks. Ask any real boater or sailor.
Leaving a crate on the ocean floor is nothing, imagine the destruction caused every time a boat drops its anchor and drags it all over sensitive sea floor habitat. Amazing the destructive practice of “anchoring” is still allowed even in marine sanctuaries. Not only that, the government even maintains buoys and anchorages along our coast, routinely ripping them from the sea floor and replacing them.
Chip, tell me you know nothing about anchoring without telling me you know nothing about anchoring. If you are dragging all over the sea floor then you have problems coming your way–that’s really not how it typically works.
Alex, when you anchor your boat and the wind changes direction, what do you reckon that substantial length of chain lying on the sea floor does as your boat swings around to follow the wind?
There shouldn’t be a “substantial length of chain lying on the sea floor” if you anchor correctly.
Chains move all around, as I stated. I think you misread.
Lmao @ Chip and Basic, finally revealing yourselves as true scrubs. Not only demonstrating you can’t anchor properly but doubling down as part of a bizarre contorted argument to justify damaging the environment. Bravo! I am constantly impressed by the deficits of your intellect but this is of Marianas Trench proportions. Gotta love nautical humor!
Notice how effective Chip was in changing the subject to anchoring, which is not what the subject is here. Too many people allow themselves to be led around by the nose by propagandists like Chip.
Basic: ahh okay I get it now, chains moving around is equivalent to big crates of wine being dumped on the sea floor as part of an illegal business and fraud scheme. Thanks for clearing that up lmao
Chip has one of the most fallacy-ridden minds ever encountered. Here he uses the fallacy of relative privation, or what I like to call the “Not as bad as Hitler” argument: discount problem X because there’s a worse problem Y
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Not_as_bad_as
Lame idea from some wine posers, and they deserved it. Done.
Sounds like someone didn’t pay off the right people.
Exactly!
Bahaha! More grifters posing and taking advantage again. Big surprise in a wealthy town. Good job, SB District Attorney’s office! Legitimate business needs to be defended.
The marketing photos look super fake! People can’t actually believe that they come out that perfectly.
Alcohol abuse
Lol
I think this is done with bourbon as well. That said, a good product placed in the container under the sea should….. taste the same as that same product
I’ll find a bottle and give you one… I probably owe you at least one decent peace offering
EDNEY – If you procure some undersea bourbon, I’ll go halfsies on a crate with you!
@ 11:46 That’s right Babycakes. Who needs demonstrably stupid business people who violate business and environmental laws when you can do it yourself.
Ahh the good old California “slap on the wrist”
Three misdemeanors? They should do serious time for not only committing these crimes but doing so after knowing they didn’t have approval.
Ignorance of the law is different than downright defiance of it.
This scam is based, I think, on the publicity given to wine occasionally recovered from sunken ships. Some of this stuff is hundreds of years old. The people who have tasted the wine rave about it but one should suspect they are just enchanted with the idea of drinking the stuff. Anyway, seems to me that the schemers here just decided to tap that publicity and get the suckers lined up. Who knows, maybe it is a good aging device if done right.
Why not sink it down to the wreck of the Titanic and age it there! Then they could REALLY rip rich wine investors off! /s
I know you’re being facetious, but as we saw recently, pressures at that depth are astronomical and catastrophic to most sealed vessels.
Well, this isn’t LA but a bunch of the LA city councilpersons, supervisors etc are in trouble for taking bribes from all types of developers
Sacjon. My mistake. The bourbon I was thinking of markets itself as being aged at sea. Presumably sloshing around in its casks, not under the sea, not on the sea, but probably in a shipping container on a ship that is on the sea.
Why couldn’t they have auctioned off the bottles, with the proceeds going to local charities or non-profits? Guesstimate: 2000 bottles X $20/bottle = $40,000. That’s meaningful money to many local groups!
Part of the justification for destruction was the argument that sea water may have gotten in (see article), contaminating the product. I personally would have no qualms about popping the cork, but authorities are knee jerk draconian.
Could have got $200 a bottle from a fund raiser.
That’s a good idea.
People would by it for various reasons.
The only way this type of aging process will work without adversely affecting the ecosystem/environment is to give government their cut. Once the gov gets their $$, then the so-called rules and regulations go out the window. The authorities pretty much don’t care in many cases as long as they get paid.
BTW, there’s puh-lenty of this ocean-aged wine out there if you know where to look. You can even do it yourself if you have a boat/kayak or the like. Just go out to one of the kelp beds at low tide and drop a metal crate (an old dishwasher rack works great!) filled with wine (secure the wine with chicken wire) in and tie it off to a strand of kelp. Simply wait several months or longer, and voila…..you got yourself some of that special wine complete with creatures attached to the bottle!!!
What a crock! Do you even think before spewing nonsense?
4:12 – No. He doesn’t.
Babycakes–
Really? So you’re saying that if I just hand the right governmental official some money they will not enforce their land use and zoning laws and I can finally open up my long dreamt about body shop/strip club/fish market next to your house?
Awesome!!!!!
Who do I pay????!!!!
AlexBlue: I would have absolutely no objection at all if you opened up next door to my house. I would even like to audition for your strip club!!! Imagine that, Babycakes on the Bird Perch shakin’ them feathers like a peacock hummmmmmingbird….make it rain, make it rain, make IT rain!!!
Sacjon
Set up a place, business, address where you know someone well enough, and I’ll drop a bottle off there for you to pick up. You can review it here, maybe start a new career as edhats Bourbon taster.
If Bevmo has it for order, I can buy you a bottle and leave it under “sacjon” for pick up. You and I will never agree on politics, but I respect your right to think your way.