Rare Foods Australia Limited (ASX: RFA) is expanding Ocean Cellared wine production, with its product in the process of maturing on the ocean floor.
The company says the marine environment enhances the wine maturation process to provide wines of unique provenance and depth of flavour.
After successful trials in 2020 with strategic partner Glenarty Road, and upscaling production of the original process, called Ocean Signature, the company undertook research on alternative production methods. The aim was to find a method that could provide a sustainable and scalable product range to further diversify the company’s revenue sources and underpin its rebranding to Rare Foods Australia.
Over a two-year period, the company investigated several options and identified Winereef International as a potential partner. Winereef, whom the company first had dealing with in August 2022, has developed a proprietary technology for Ocean Cellaring that complements the company’s current ocean cellaring method and could provide significant production of a premium wine range.
Winereef, based on the Basque coast of France, has developed, and honed over 15 years its method to cellar wine in the ocean in vats on a large scale. Today Winereef produces up to 200,000 bottles of wine per annum using its proprietary ocean cellaring technology.
The founder, Emmanuel Poirmeur, created the technology to allow wine to mature in the ocean under a secondary fermentation process. This is accelerated under the pressure created by water depth, within purpose-built vats attached to the seabed. The pressure, constant movement, and the ocean environment produces wines of unique flavours and identity that cannot be replicated on land.
Once harvested, the vats are delivered directly for processing to traditional wine bottling, labelling, and packaging plants.
The company and Winereef have signed a binding Heads of Agreement (HoA) to undertake a commercial trial of the Winereef technology and processes on the Flinders Bay lease. The trial is based on a 50 / 50 split of both cost and revenues. The trial is scheduled to begin in early 2024 and estimated to yield up to 13,000 bottles of product by July 2024.
On completion of the trial and depending on its success, the Company and Winereef have agreed to develop business agreements to commercialise an ocean cellaring business in Australia, though, at this stage are under no obligation to do so.
The Ocean Signature process was the company’s entrée into Ocean Cellaring. It involves the placement of wine in securely sealed glass bottles in crates on the seabed for up to 12 months. The exterior of each bottle develops a one-of-a-kind external Ocean Signature from marine life such as corals, coralline red algae, oysters, tube worms, etc. When dried, the encrusted remains of the natural marine growth give the bottles a unique and appealing look with an attractive marketing advantage.
With strategic partners Glenarty Road and Edwards wineries, the company has harvests planned for November. These will provide the company with 2,300 bottles of the Ocean Signature product for sales.
FY24 deployments with these valued strategic partnerships are currently being finalised.
