St. Helena's Mira Napa currently has four cases of its 2009 Cab resting at the bottom of the harbor in Charleston, South Carolina.
"We've all read the stories of the shipwrecks that had Champagne recovered and the Champagne was fantastic," said winemaker Gustavo Gonzalez. "So we thought, you know, why don't we try to age our wine in the sea for a little bit and see what happens."
The wine is secured in specially designed containers to avoid any drift. Gonzalez wonders how the wine will be affected by underwater currents, which will subject the bottles to a contant swaying motion.
Temperature is also a factor in the aging process. The harbor's waters will remain rather constant over the next few months at roughly 59 degrees. However, the bottles will need to come up at the end of May because water temperatures will rise quickly as we head into summer, unlike the waters off of the Northern California coast which vary little from season to season.
The plan is to taste test the wine immediately, then re-submerge the bottles for a secondary underwater aging when the water returns to a safe temperature in the fall.
