It may not look as appetising as a crisp Chardonnay or a rich bottle of Malbec, but grey wine recovered from a shipwreck is definitely more unusual. The bottle of grey liquid was recovered from a US Civil War shipwreck. Now, a panel of experts have sipped the wine and say it had a heady sulphur bouquet with distinct notes of crab water and gasoline. Grey wine recorded from the wreck of a Civil War blockade runner that sank in 1864 waqs sampled by sommeliers, who said it tasted like a mixture of crab water, gasoline, salt water and vinegar, with hints of citrus and alcohol . The bottle was pulled from the wreck of a Civil War blockade runner that sank off the coast of Bermuda in 1864. It was uncorked at a food festival in Charleston, South Carolina, in front of an audience of 50 who watched a panel of experts decant and taste the rare liquid. Master sommelier Paul Roberts said: ‘I've had shipwreck wines before. They can be great.’ But sadly the grey wine was not. The wine was one of five sealed bottles recovered by marine archaeologists (pictured) from the Mary-Celestia, an iron-hulled sidewheel steamship that sank under mysterious circumstances during the US Civil War . To peals of audience laughter, the panel said the cloudy yellow-grey liquid smelled and tasted like a mixture of crab water, gasoline, salt water and vinegar, with hints of citrus and alcohol. Sommeliers were not impressed with the taste of the grey ship wreck wine. Larry Stone of Napa, California is shown looking at the murky liquid . It could have been a Spanish fortified wine, a spirit, or medicine, but after 151 years at the bottom of the ocean, it's now mostly saltwater, they said. Wine chemist Pierre Louis Teissedre of the University of Bordeaux, had previously analysed samples drawn through the cork. He said the ‘nose’ of the wine was a room-clearing mix of camphor – which is used in vapour rubs to treat colds - stagnant water, hydrocarbons, turpentine and sulphur. Analysis showed it was 37 percent alcohol, he said. The wine was one of five sealed bottles recovered by marine archaeologists from the Mary-Celestia, an iron-hulled sidewheel steamship that sank under mysterious circumstances during the US Civil War. The boat was leaving Bermuda with supplies for the Confederate states when it struck a reef and sank in six minutes, said Philippe Rouja, a cultural anthropologist and custodian of historic shipwrecks for the Bermudan government. Whether the sinking was deliberate or accidental has been debated for decades. Mr Rouja and his brother, Jean-Pierre Rouja, were diving near the shipwreck in 2011 after winter storms swept over the site when they found a bottle of wine inside a secret boatswain's locker in the bow. Subsequent dives turned up the additional bottles, as well as sealed bottles of perfume, women's shoes, hairbrushes and pearl shell buttons, Philippe Rouja said. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, which was fought from 1861 to 1865 and began in Charleston Harbor with the Battle of Fort Sumter. Mr Rouja and his brother, Jean-Pierre Rouja, were diving near the shipwreck in 2011 after winter storms swept over the site when they found a bottle of wine inside a secret boatswain's locker in the bow. This image shows the excavation in process . The Mary-Celestia is a Civil War blockade runner that sank off the coast of Bermuda in 1864. The iron-hulled sidewheel steamship sank under mysterious circumstances. Leaving Bermuda with supplies for the Confederate states, the boat struck a reef and sank in six minutes. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln imposed a naval blockade of the US coast from Virginia to Texas in a bid to stop exports of southern cotton, turpentine and tobacco to Europe - crippling it financially. Subsequent dives turned up the additional bottles, as well as sealed bottles of perfume, women's shoes, hairbrushes and pearl shell buttons. The bottle containing the grey 'wine' is shown . The southern response to the blockade was the blockade runner - fast steamships that were manned by daredevil crews who could come under fire and faced possible imprisonment. The boats were highly profitable and saw the goods they carried selling for 200 to 700 per cent more than they had in peacetime, Archaeology.org reported. Mary-Celestia was one of them and was commissioned by two brothers in Virginia to serve their business interests in Great Britain and its colonies, including Bermuda. In its short lifetime, the ship is believed to have been chased by a US Navy blockader but escaped, leading the crew to throw 100 bales of cotton, worth $100,000 overboard to lighten the load. On its final voyage the ship was loaded with canned meat and guns. A crew member spotted rocks as the vessel approached the southern shore of Bermuda, but the pilot didn’t heed the warning and the ship struck the reef. With the crew scrambling for lifeboats, the ship sank rapidly. Sinking after just two years of service rumours were rife that the pilot had deliberately wrecked the ship, but there is no evidence to suggest that he was working for the US Consul in Bermuda. Much of the cargo was retrieved, but items like wine bottles, shoes, perfume bottles and other personal effects were left behind and were revealed after Hurricane Bill in 2009.
Bottle of grey liquid was recovered from a US Civil War shipwreck . Mary-Celestia steamship sank under mysterious circumstances in 1864 . Wine bottle was uncorked at a food festival in Charleston, South Carolina . Sommeliers who sipped the liquid inside said it smelled and tasted like a mix of crab water, gasoline, salt water and vinegar, with hints of citrus .