From time to time, the wine world gladly shares its intriguing new ideas. This time it is all to do with galaxies and lack of gravity and all-things spacey.
On November the 2nd, 2019, when Corona was just a beer better served with a slice of lemon, a rocket was blasted off from a NASA launchpad, in Virginia. Passenger list on this rocket, included 12 bottles of Bordeaux wines, among other things.
This is part of a project made by 2 start-ups and it involves several universities, including the University of Bordeaux’s Wine institute. The name of the wine is a closely guarded secret for now.
This once-in-a-lifetime adventure is not the first time a wine took over foreign galaxies. A bottle of Chateau Lynch-Bages, 1975 accompanied astronauts aboard the shuttle “Discovery”, in 1985 returning to Earth in 2015. From what we know, the wine remains corked.
What is the plan, you may say?
One of the purposes is to examine how the extreme conditions affect ageing by discovering the impact of space radiation and weightlessness on the wine’s ageing process. This might result in imporving long-term storage of food and drink in space. Wine is ideal for the study because it contains yeast and bacteria and is made through a chemical process. Researchers pointed out that Louis Pasteur developed pasteurisation through experiments in wine fermentation.
Individually bottled in metal canisters to prevent breakage, the wine will spend one year in orbit before returning back to Earth.
No, astronauts will not enjoy a tasting among the stars! At the same time, back on Planet Earth, the same wines are kept at the same temperature, until both are tasted side by side. This is called Science!
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Who knows? Maybe, in the (near?) future, choosing, drinking and enjoying space-aged wines, will be the in thing! Patience people, patience!
Until then.. Strike for a glass half full !
Nicole x
