Mira Winery of California went fishing in the Charleston Harbor Tuesday afternoon.  But the catch was not seafood. Rather, Mira became the first American winery to experiment with the idea of aging wine at the floor of the ocean.

Mira Winery president Jim Dyke stands in front of the crates which held the wine on the bottom of the harbor

The winery placed 48 bottles of cabernet sauvignon in 4 heavy duty yellow cages and submerged them in the harbor back on February 20. The cages’ exact location was not disclosed, but they were 60 feet below the surface.

On Tuesday, the winery brought the cages back up to the surface. Mira Winemaker Gustavo Gonzalez and says this is “phase one” of the experiment to understand if wine storage under the sea affects or enhances the beverage’s taste.

“There’s definitely differences in pressure, temperature, light, and motion that we don’t have on land,” he said after the wine was brought into the Charleston waterfront. “So it’s going to be really interesting to see how this is after three months of being in the sea.”

However, this first batch of wine had already aged above ground for some time. “Phase two” will be to start the underwater aging process as soon as the wine is bottled, he said.

Gonzalez says it all holds a lot of promise as something different for wine lovers to enjoy. “I’m hoping that anybody will be able to tell the difference, because my feeling is that the aging process will be a little bit slower underwater,” he said.

As for the wine fished out of the harbor Tuesday, 12 bottles will be offered to the Mira Wine club members. The rest will undergo scientific testing and tasting.

Sheree Bernardi of Charleston affiliate WTMA filed this report.