Zero gravity is no barrier to fine wine say researchers in Bordeaux who tasted a 5,000 euro bottle of Chateau Petrus Pomerol that spent 14 months in space.
The rare example of Pétrus 2000 was sent up to the space station 250 miles above our planet by Space Cargo Unlimited (SCU) and pre-sale estimates indicate that it could haul in an estimated $1 million via Christie’s Private Sales, with the proceeds going to fund future space missions.
Credit: Christie s Auction House Ltd.
“This bottle of Pétrus 2000 marks a momentous step in the pursuit of developing and gaining a greater understanding of the maturation of wine,” Tim Triptree, international director of Christie’s wine and spirits department, noted in a statement this week. Christie’s is delighted to bring this first of its kind bottle to the market and to support Space Cargo Unlimited to continue their research into the future of agricultural practices.”
Private space startup Space Cargo Unlimited sent the wine into orbit in November 2019 as part of an effort to make plants on Earth more resilient to climate change and disease by exposing them to new stresses. Researchers also want to better understand the aging process, fermentation and bubbles in wine.
At a taste test in March at the Institute for Wine and Vine Research in Bordeaux, France, a dozen wine connoisseurs compared one of the space-traveled wines to a bottle from the same vintage that had stayed in a cellar.
Credit: AP
A bottle of Petrus red wine that spent a year orbiting the world in the International Space Station is pictured in Paris Monday, May 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)