THE HIDDEN SEA PROJECT

As a species we owe a lot to the ocean. Without it we wouldn’t have surfing, oysters or the Jaws sequels. Our status as top of the food chain and stewards-in-chief over the waters has become a problematic one, however. All life emerged from the seas, and in exchange we have often used it as a dumping ground.

Born both from the sea and also in response to human caused degradation of it, comes The Hidden Sea Wines. Co-founders Richie Vandenberg and Justin Moran have combined their love of the ocean, South Australia’s ability to produce excellent wines and a commitment to ‘living with purpose,’ to create a brand that is helping to clean up our seas as a core part of its raison d’etre.

To do this they have partnered with the ReSea Project to remove and recycle the equivalent of ten plastic bottles from the ocean for every bottle of wine they sell. The Hidden Sea have set themselves the goal of removing a billion bottles worth of plastic by 2030, the equivalent of nearly 17,000 tons of waste. A huge amount of plastic, but as Richie puts it, ‘the idea of living with purpose is to set an ambitious goal that is worth fighting for and galvanising a tribe of like-minded people to help you achieve it.’

The land itself also plays a part here of course, and indeed as discussed elsewhere in these pages, much of what makes parts of South Australia so special for winemaking is its history as a seabed. Where winemakers now tread whales once swam, some twenty-six million years ago. Near one of the Hidden Seas vineyards in Wrattonbully are the fossilised remains of one of these ocean behemoths.

The Hidden Sea make it easy for you to spot their wines and help do a bit for the environment with every bottle you purchase, as well as pay tribute to their spot of earth and its oceanic heritage, by proudly emblazoning this whale across every label. Labels that are, by the way, laser printed using water-based inks that naturally burn off during the recycling process, because every little bit counts.