Winery Experiments with Aging Wine in Ocean off U.S.

A small boat with four cases of California wine has left South Carolina and will submerge the wine in the ocean for three months to age it.

California-based Mira Winery is experimenting to see how the motion, temperature and light in the ocean may affect the aging of the wine.

Winemakers have long known that 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 U.S. coast.

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