Drače 🇭🇷

Drače was one of the major highlights we were looking forward to and it did not disappoint! What is so exciting about a small village in Croatia you've probably never heard of?  Well, an underwater winery!  Jason and I have a 'deep' love for SCUBA diving and EDivo Vina Winery offers underwater tours of their wine bottles and amphoras that are stored in the Adriatic Sea on a shipwreck which was used during the Game of Thrones filming, as if this could't get any cooler!!  

We spent a lazy morning soaking up some sun at the beach while the kids splashed around and found fish, hermit crabs, and sea urchins.  In the afternoon we made our way to the boat and headed out to the secret location for our dive.  Ben even drove us there!  While we took turns diving Ben enjoyed snorkeling around the dock and Emma even had a little swim in the water.  

Once in the water, we followed the line down to about 50ft seeing various fish and sea cucumbers along the way.   After a short swim the shadowy silhouette of a shipwreck emerges from the murky blue.  Feathery tube worms and algae cover the boat that contains the sunken treasure, bottles of Navis Mysterium, the sea mystery.   The bottles are left underwater for over 700 days to develop their novel flavour and aquatic decor.  The constant and cool temperatures of the sea floor are perfect conditions for the wine to age.  

After the dive we went back to the shop and sampled their various wines.   It was intriguing to hear about their journey that may have involved salty wines and lost bottles but all the wines were delicious and varied in flavour from their different above and underwater storage.

It was one of the most unique dives we've ever done and one that we will remember forever!