California authorities destroy 2,000 bottles of wine illegally fermented under the ocean
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By Ramishah Maruf, CNN
(CNN) — Some things just don’t belong at the bottom of the ocean. And according to the Santa Barbara County, California, district attorney’s office, that includes unpermitted crates of wine.
Agencies in Santa Barbara County destroyed 2,000 bottles of wine that were sold by the company Ocean Fathoms, the office of the county’s district attorney announced last week. Starting in 2017, the company was sinking crates full of bottles without obtaining a proper permit from the California Coastal Commission and US Army Corps of Engineers.
The crates of wine were submerged about 3.7 miles off the Santa Barbara Harbor under 70 feet of water, according to a 2021 complaint from the California Coastal Commission.
The bottles were left to ferment for a year, after which they were plucked from the “environmentally sensitive” waters and sold for up to $500 each. Ocean Fathoms lauded the sea floor off the Southern California coast as the perfect environment to age wine — 55 degrees, no oxygen, no light and rolling currents.
The bottles’ destruction was part of a plea agreement involving two owners, Emanuele Azzaretto and Todd Hahn. They pleaded no contest, according to Deputy District Attorney Morgan Lucas, to misdemeanors of illegally discharging material into waters of the United States, selling alcohol without a license and aiding and abetting investor fraud.
Azzaretto and Hahn are also required to pay $50,000 in restitution to one of their investors, according to the DA.
CNN has reached out to Ocean Fathoms, Azzaretto and Hahn for comment.
The California Coastal Commission also expressed concern about the bottles themselves, which were adorned with various sea creatures that attached themselves to the glass during the aging process.
Ocean Fathoms highlighted the creatures on its website, writing, “sea life that attaches to our bottle is the ultimate in nature’s packaging. Each bottle is adorned with barnacles, coral, sea shells and ornate hard shelled tubes formed by annelida sea worms.”
The commission, however, described the sea life in its 2021 complaint as “collateral damage of your unpermitted operation” as they “do not appear to have survived the journey to the surface.”
Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch claimed that “nearly every aspect” of the business operation violated some sort of federal or state law.
The US Food and Drug Administration did not consider the wine to be fit for human consumption because of potential ocean contamination and because it lacked federally approved labeling, the DA’s office said.
Other missing business operating fundamentals, according to authorities: an ABC alcohol sales permit, a valid business license and tax payments to the State of California (the company did collect sales tax from customers, the DA said).
Authorities disposed of the alcohol at a local wastewater treatment plant and recycled the bottles, the DA said.
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