Richie Vandenberg spent 10 years playing professional football in Australia, but never strayed far from his family’s business: Growing grapes.
Vandenberg, a fourth generation grape-grower, grew up on vineyards in Australia. But his father wanted him to tackle something other than being on the farm, so the younger Vandenberg studied environmental engineering at University of Melbourne.
That eventually led Richie Vandenberg to start his own socially conscious wine company, which is now based in the South Bay. The Hidden Sea — which aims to remove plastic from the ocean — has its office in Hermosa Beach.
Vandenberg’s time at the University of Melbourne led to him being drafted by the Hawthorn Football Club, part of Australian Football League, in 1997.
Then, after, playing in the AFL from 1997 to 2007, he started developing his own vineyard.
“When I was finished (with AFL),” Vandenberg said, “I wanted to take the next step and move into wine making and to get a winery.”
Vandenberg and his business partner, Justin Moran, founded The Hidden Sea in Coonawarra, in South Australia, more than 10 years ago. That area of Australia, Vandenberg said, is similar to Napa Valley.
“We wanted to build a brand with purpose,” Vandenberg said. “It was all about building a wine where we could galvanize a tribe of people behind a common goal.”
Since July 2020, sales of Hidden Seas wines have helped remove nearly 25.5 million plastic bottles from the ocean, Vandenberg said.
The company’s goal is to remove 1 billion single-use plastic bottles from the ocean before 2030.
Currently, the company is focusing on plastic removal from the waters off Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as the Nile River. Next, Vandenberg said, the company wants to expand its ocean plastic collection to Southern California in 2025.
Hidden Sea’s vineyard, on the coast of Austrlia, was historically covered by the ocean, Vandenberg said. That’s why a whale dominates the wine label. A fossilized whale can be found underneath the vineyards.
“When the ocean receded,” Hidden Sea’s website says, “the fossilized marine life left the soil rich with nutrients, which allows the grapes to flourish today.”
Vandenberg, who now lives in Manhattan Beach with his family, said he became aware of the plastic waste issue in 2014 and began supporting ocean-based charities.
“As we learn more and more about plastic collection,” he said, “we decided we wanted to do something tangible.”
So Hidden Sea partnered with a plastic collection agency in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2020 — and that’s when they came up with a goal of removing a billion plastic single-use bottles by 2030.
The company also hosts beach clean-ups along the California coast.
The Chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, red blend and rose wines are sold in 32 states and more than 600 locations. The wine is available at some local markets, such as Uncorked and The Green Store in Hermosa Beach, as well as at major chains like Ralphs.
Vandenberg said he is hoping others sign on to help advance The Hidden Sea’s goal of reducing ocean plastic.
“We are trying to build a community of people who believe in what we believe in,” Vandenberg said.
For more information, visit thehiddensea.com.