International Conservation Caucus Foundation Ball

Had a long conversation this morning with the always excited Melanie Marks CEO of Shark Trust Wines about her adventures in Washington this week at the Obama Inauguration.

Turns out Melanie was front and center at both the swearing in ceremony and with the Washington conservation crowd at the International Conservation Caucus Foundation Ball where Shark Trust Wines were served to a standing room only crowd of conservationists and politico's.

For America's only wine brand that supports shark conservation efforts and raises awareness about sharks that was a pretty neat trick. Melanie reports that she is now out of wine in the D.C area for a while, another successful event and a unique way to get shark conservation efforts on the agenda in Washington.

We have been featuring Shark Trust Wines on all our commercial shark diving vessels since the brands inception. As a stand alone wine series they are excellent, as a back end way to message shark conservation efforts, brilliant.

$1800 for wine on a Shark Shoot? It must be California!

One of the more interesting moments for us here at Shark Diver was the wine order we had to put together for a recent film shoot in the Bahamas.

Turns out the entire crew was French, and stereotypes aside, they loved their wines.

Typically when we put a shark shoot together we get calls for standard shark gear, cages, chum, cameras, what you would expect for a few days at sea with big sharks.

This unexpected 12 case wine order was a chance for me personally to showcase some talents that only Shark Diver seems to possess in the film and television world...in depth knowledge of good California wines.

Needless to say, of the entire film project, this took the most time and needed the most attention. After all there's no way on god's green earth our California based company was going to ship "subpar wines" to a bunch of Frenchmen who would be at sea for 10 days in the middle of the Grand Banks, Bahamas.

The final word? They liked our wines.

Shark Trust Wines:Eco-Cool

Sharks and Vino?

Shark Trust Wines just emailed us their 2007 synopsis...and business is good. You may want to check these guys out for your 2008 Shark Week B.B.Q.


Best of all 10% of all wine sales go back to shark research. Shark Trust has been a huge supporter of the Isla Guadalupe Fund.

Shark Trust Highlights of 2007:

Customer Base: Currently distributed in 19 states and growing.

Aquarium Relationships: Now actively working with several well-respected aquariums in the US to increase brand awareness and support ocean conservation. Donations made to Florida Aquarium, Mote Marine Labs, Birch Aquarium, Seattle Aquarium, Shedd Aquarium, Aquarium of the Pacific - Long Beach, UC Davis research team, Coast Keepers.

Press Coverage: Fox News, Dive News magazine, AOL,Good Morning America, CNN, Washington Post and Wine Enthusiast magazine.

Here's where you go to get yours!

The Shark-Corkscrew-Holiday Gift

With X-Mas just a few days away here's a gift idea that had the crew here at UT running to the store to buy some vino.

The good folks at "The Shark" sent us a few of these gizmos to test run over the past few days and nights.

We're here to report that the media hype is all that and more..this is one serious wine opener!

Top Three Vinos We Tested from Wine Spectator

1. Cuvee le Bec from Beckmen Vineyards (California). A blend of red grapes. "Blends are oftentimes a good value," says Rayyis. Vintners "are making good wines without getting hung up on particular grape varieties." He says this Rhone-style wine is "consistently really good."-Corks in these bottles are real and the shark thingy tears them out in no time.

2. Deadly Zins Zinfandel from Michael-David Vineyards (California). "It flies off the shelf and deservedly so," says Fredrikson. -Corks are plastic and the shark thing makes short work of them.

3. Banfi Centine, Rosso di Toscana (Italy). "A good Chianti Classico nowadays retails for about $18 and up," says McCarthy, who calls this "a great alternative." Good with tomato pastas or steak, he says. - Dry cork, shark thing works with a few pieces left behind..tasty vino!