Wine to be aged on the sea floor

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CHARLESTON, S.C., Feb. 21 (UPI) -- A California winery says it's trying out a new way to age its wine -- not in a warehouse but submerged on the sea floor.

Napa Valley-based Mira Winery said it thinks aging 48 bottles of its 2009 Cabernet in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor could enhance its taste.

Winery officials said they were inspired to try the experiment by wine recovered from shipwrecks that has demonstrated unique flavors, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

"The ocean has similar ideal elements that impact aging -- temperature, pressure, humidity, pressure, motion, light or lack thereof and oxygen," Gustavo Gonzalez, a Mira Winery winemaker, said in a statement. "Is there something just as impactful and interesting in aquaoir as there is about terroir? We are going to try and find out."

Terroir refers to the special characteristics geography, geology and climate of a certain place can give to wine grapes.

The bottles of wine have been put into cages and submerged to the sea floor where it will remain for three months, the winery said.

When it is brought to the surface, wine tasters will compare the vintage to an identical batch aged conventionally, it said.