12 wines and 320 vine canes were blasted into space in November 2019 as part of a scientific research led by a start-up firm called Space Cargo Unlimited. The 12 Bordeaux red wine bottles are now safely back to earth as the SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft undocked heading for the waters off Tampa carrying thousands of pounds of research materials and gear, including the case of French Bordeaux, hundreds of grapevines, mice and 3D-engineered heart tissues.
The lab technicians got to work with sampling and studying began on the batch especially analysing the effects of zero-gravity on the precious bottles of wine. The event is guaranteed to be unlike any other wine tasting on Earth with some of France’s top connoisseurs, vintners, and sommeliers gathering for a taste test and report back on the wines.
According to Chris Mercer of The Decanter, properties in the wines and vines were prepared for compared analysis against control samples that stayed behind on earth. ‘The team stated that they will be looking at everything that has evolved. More interesting is that a chemical analysis of the wines is being planned, as well as a private wine tasting scheduled for early March 2021. The identity of the Bordeaux red wines remains anonymous, but they are from a single producer and one vintage.
The wine bottles were packaged inside steel cylinders and remain uncorked since they were sent into orbit. Nicolas Gaume, the top boss in charge of the project hopes the audacious experiment proves useful for future space explorers who would like to enjoy wine on the moon and Mars.
While Space Cargo is the first company to make alcohol in space, they are not the first to research it. Champagne producer Mumm invented in 2018 and being the world’s first fizz that can be drunk while floating in weightlessness. The experiment was definitely keeping space tourists mind for future trips to outer galaxies. The bottle dispenses its content as a foam, which can then be caught in glasses or simply drunk straight out of the air.
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