The Wine Yard in Farnham hosted a Greek wine tasting event on Tuesday (June 14), with 11 wines from across Greece uncorked and the highlight being a very special bottle from Santorini worth £290!

This wine was matured for four years, 30 metres under the sea, and The Wine Yard in Lion & Lamb Yard, Farnham, is currently the only place in the UK where it is available.

The theory is that at this depth the optimum, consistent temperature is reached to create the wine’s rich colour, and the lack of oxygen under the surface allows for better ageing.

The pressure on the bottle is also thought to concentrate the flavours.

The wine – ‘Thalassitis’ by Greek wine producer Gaia – was submerged off the coast of Santorini along with 498 other bottles, and all of the profits go to charity.

However, this vanguard method of wine maturing has been somewhat trial and error – the first cage of wines sent down were damaged in a storm and only three bottles survived.

On the second cage, the corks did not have a wax seal and as a result the bottles filled with seawater and urchins, which unsurprisingly doesn’t make for a pleasant wine tasting.

The Wine Yard in Lion & Lamb Yard, Farnham, stocks more than 500 wines from all over the world
The Wine Yard in Lion & Lamb Yard, Farnham, stocks more than 500 wines from all over the world (Grace Camagay)

The tickets for this particular event cost £40, however similar events take place each week at The Wine Yard, the most recent arrival in Farnham’s Lion & Lamb Yard, opened last December by Nick Mantella.

These ‘ten wine tasting series’ invite customers (who pay £25 per ticket and book online) to taste up to 10 wines from across the globe, worth up to £250 in total.

Customers who purchase bottles after the tasting are eligible for a refund of their ticket.

The Wine Yard stocks more than 500 wines from around the world, including many from the UK, and the most exotic being from Lebanon, Turkey and Uruguay, with prices starting from around £7.50 per bottle.

Nick describes The Wine Yard, which opened over Christmas 2021, as an ‘enoteca’ and a cross between a shop and a bar, where customers can come for a drink and an experience, and have the opportunity to ‘try before they buy’.

See The Wine Yard’s Facebook page or call 01252 717557 to see what’s coming up...

Article by Beatrice Vickery, a Year 12 student at HSDC Alton College