Out of the cellar and into the drink: Winery experiments with aging wine in ocean off SC

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Gustavo Gonzalez, the winemaker for Mira Winery in St. Helena, Calif., left, and winery president Jim "Bear" Dyke Jr., speak with reporters in Charleston, S.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, about the winery\'s experiment in wine aging. The winery on Wednesday sank four cases of wine in Charleston Harbor to see what effect the ocean has on aging the wine. Similar experiments with ocean aging have been conducted in Europe. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith)

CHARLESTON, S.C. – A small boat with four cases of California wine has left Charleston Harbor and will submerge the wine in the ocean for three months to age it.

Napa Valley-based Mira Winery, owned by Jim Dyke Jr., of Charleston, is experimenting to see how the motion, temperature and light in the ocean may affect the aging of the wine.

The bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon were packed in specially designed steel mesh cases and are being put in an undisclosed location in the harbour.

Winemakers have long known wine recovered from sunken ships has a unique taste, and the ocean is thought to have something to do with that. There have been experiments with ocean aging in Europe but Mira Winery says this is the first off the United States coast

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