OUT OF OFFICE SPOTLIGHTS PIONEERS WHO HAVE DECIDED TO PURSUE THEIR PASSIONS BEYOND THE TYPICAL 9-TO-5 JOB.
Southern Australia’s glistening Limestone Coast is located on the coastline near the Victoria border, and is homebase for The Hidden Sea’s vineyards. But this area was once covered by a vast ocean and thriving marine ecosystem. Now, mineralized relics—including a 26-million-year-old whale fossil and an extensive museum of marine life—are buried beneath the alluvial soils of this wine region, which is a World Heritage Site.
In 2015, entrepreneur Justin Moran and retired AFL star Richie Vandenberg founded The Hidden Sea to honor South Australia’s marine ecosystem and ocean heritage by making a positive, verifiable impact on the planet. The Hidden Sea’s three blends; the Red Blend, Rosé, and Chardonnay are vegan-friendly and grown in some of Australia’s most iconic wine-growing regions.
The Hidden Sea has a very clear purpose and promise: to create a premium wine for people who care and for every bottle sold, they remove and recycle the equivalent of 10 plastic bottles from the ocean, respectively. The Hidden Sea set an extremely bold goal: by 2030 with the help from our consumers, market partners and retailers: the brand aim to remove 1 billion plastic bottles from our world’s oceans. Feel free to track their progress here, which is currently at 17,614,737 bottles and counting – the equivalent weight of a 747 jet in plastic.
In addition to The Hidden Sea removing plastic bottles from the world’s oceans, the brand is committed to sustainability in all facets of its operations. The brand is a solar-powered operation which recycles its wastewater, composts organic waste material, laser prints their labels using organic water-based inks, and more.
We decided to find out more about this unique wine-making plight and mission from co-owner Justin Moran.
As a co-founder of The Hidden Sea, what does a typical ‘day in the life’ look like for you?
There is no such thing as a typical day at The Hidden Sea and I love it that way. I could be stuck in my office replying to emails, meeting with our ocean collection partners in various locations around the world, experiencing our impact firsthand. Often, I’m in Australia working with our winemakers or in our vineyards. I could be having lunch with a very delightful and entertaining media personality. I could be presenting our purpose and promise to retailers all across the country and for that matter across the globe. I could be producing content or even working with our “blue tick” influencers who support the crusade of ocean health. Or I could be flying back from another crazy stunt like I am now. I just spent the past few days in the Egyptian desert next to the pyramids building a 3-story plastic pyramid out of 1,000,000 plastic bottles we’ve just recently collect it out of the river Nile. So, there is no typical day in the life.
What was the motivation behind starting a wine company at this stage in your career?
Absolute insanity! However, I believe that there was and still is a real opportunity to build and grow a premium wine brand that sells the purpose of why we do what they do, instead leading with simply, what we do. The majority of wine brands lead with their what: what grape, what winemaker, what region, what scores, what reviews, what quality cues etc. What does this all mean when a consumer is standing in a retailer staring at a wall or wine trying to decide on which wine to choose? This is what makes The Hidden Sea unique in a crowded space of thousands of wine brands because we lead with our purpose and promise. One Wine. One Mission. To remove plastic from the ocean. With a clear and quantifiable consumer promise; by drinking one bottle of The Hidden Sea, we will remove the equivalent of 10 single use plastic bottles from the ocean and recycle them.
Tell us how your brand is honoring South Australia’s marine ecosystem and ocean heritage.
The passion for our mission comes both from our personal experiences, our vertically integrated winemaking, and vineyard provenance. The Limestone Coast where our vineyards lay was once covered by vast ocean, and was home to a thriving marine ecosystem. Ancient mineralized relics, including an extraordinary 26-million-year-old whale fossil, and an extensive museum of marine life, now lay buried beneath the alluvial soils of this World Heritage wine region some 100km (~62 miles) inland from Coonawarra and Wrattonbully.
How can people help to remove plastic bottles from the ocean by purchasing the wine?
Our global Ocean health partner ReSea Project is delivering on our consumer promise. ReSea Project is independently validated and verified via a third party, DNV GL. DNV GL are independent auditors setting Industry standards and best practice for the sustainable removal and cleanup of plastic from the Ocean. ReSea Project becomes only the second organization in the world to be certified to the highest standards. We set an extremely bold goal on July 1 2020: by 2030 with the help from our consumers, market partners and retailers, we aim to remove 1 billion plastic bottles from our world’s oceans Track our progress here.
What’s next for you in 2023? Any travel or new regions you’d like to reach with your plight?
We would like to continue our distribution drive with top tier retailers in our core markets, especially in the U.S. Furthermore, we have plans for new product development, we will launch our lower alcohol better for you spritzed The Hidden Sea wine in can. This will be a totally different wine product then what’s in our 7:50 mil bottles and is extremely environmentally friendly.
We will expand on our global ocean cleanup partners and execute the second event as the founding partner of 100YR CLEANUP, an initiative that maps out a vision to fund large-scale clean ups for the next 100 years. With sufficient funding, we hope to be able to pursue their ultimate vision of building full-time teams in South-East-Asia and Australia cleaning the planet 5 days a week, every week, every year, for the next 100 years. And, finally, continue to work on our global grape sourcing program to even further reduce our carbon footprint.
The Hidden Sea is available nationally via wine.com and at a growing number of retail locations. You can also check availability on The Hidden Sea’s store locator, here.
