This bottle of Petrus spent fourteen months on the international space station -

Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

  • The start-up Space Cargo Unlimited had sent twelve bottles of Château Pétrus for fourteen months to the International Space Station.

  • A tasting of this wine was organized on March 1 at the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences in Villenave d'Ornon.

  • One of the experts judged the terrestrial wine "a little more tannic, younger" compared to the "celestial" wine.

He remained 438 days and 19 hours in space, at an altitude of 400 km from Earth… The name of the wine which had left for fourteen months on the International Space Station (ISS), had so far remained secret.

It was unveiled on Wednesday at a press conference at Bordeaux city hall: it was twelve bottles of Château Pétrus (pomerol) from the 2000 vintage, valued at around 5,000 euros per bottle.

The mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic received the scientific team of the Wise mission, which sent Château Petrus wine into space - Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

It is the Bordeaux start-up Space Cargo Unlimited, founded by Nicolas Gaume and Emmanuel Etcheparre, which is at the origin of the project.

Returned to Earth at the start of the year aboard the SpaceX company Dragon cargo ship, this wine was first stored at the ISVV (Scientific Institute of Vine and Wine) in Villenave d'Ornon near Bordeaux, to let it sit.

Then a tasting was organized on March 1st.

On that day, two “anonymized” bottles of Pétrus were blindly presented to a panel of 12 people - amateurs and expert oenologists.

"The space stay did not have a detrimental impact on the sensory quality of the wine"

So, was the wine that went into space different from that that remained on Earth?

Yes, even if this first tasting is only a first step, and it will have to be supplemented by other analyzes.

The verdict was unanimous on one point: for all tasters, these two wines were considered "to be very great wines", assures Philippe Darriet, director of the oenology research unit at ISVV.

“The spatial stay of the tasted bottle did not have a detrimental impact on the sensory quality of this great wine,” he continues, “and the two bottles surprised us with the complexity and finesse of their aromas.

"

Nicolas Gaume returns for @ 20minutesbord on this first tasting of "space wine" a Pétrus 2000 which spent 14 months on the ISS and which was compared with a wine of the same vintage which remained on Earth pic.twitter.com/ i8kh9iBTGj

- 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) March 24, 2021

In 11 out of 12 cases, "differences" were noted, particularly in color, and sometimes in nuances of smell and taste.

For the oenologist Jane Anson, “the big difference” between the two wines remained above all “visual”.

"Both are really magnificent", she assured while judging the terrestrial wine "a little more tannic, younger" compared to the "celestial" wine with "silky tannins, more developed, and an aromatic side. a little more floral ”.

Conversely, the oenologist Franck Dubourdieu did not perceive any "significant" difference.

This does not prevent him from hailing a "success": "the wine of space has not deteriorated".

The branches that went into space would grow faster

The famous Bordeaux castle was not associated with the experience, specifies Nicolas Gaume.

"We did not ask for it, and we did not generally involve the place of Bordeaux," he explains.

We didn't want to impose that risk on established brands, especially a big name like this, and we bought this wine ourselves.

"

These first impressions must still be confirmed by physico-chemical analyzes at the ISVV while in parallel, scientists are monitoring the evolution of the 320 vine shoots of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, which were also sent to the ISS, where they stayed ten months, in lightless cells with controlled humidity.

The first observations seem to show that the branches that have left for space, and which have since been replanted, in particular in greenhouses at the ISVV, would grow faster than the plants that remained on Earth.

"Develop plants so that they become more resistant"

Mission Wise is the premier private applied space research program.

Faced with the challenges linked to global warming, it intends to take advantage of the effects of microgravity on complex biological systems.

"The Earth is changing, and we believe that space has keys to allow us to think about what the agriculture and viticulture of tomorrow will be," continues Nicolas Gaume.

When we remove gravity, we create the most stupendous stress to which we can be exposed, and nature reacts, it develops strategies to try to survive, to evolve.

It is this stress that we want to capture, because it will make plants evolve, so that they become more resistant to climate change that is hitting the Earth.

"

Nicolas Gaume, president and founder of the start-up Space Cargo Unlimited - Mickaël Bosredon / 20Minutes

Nicolas Gaume is pleased that “the intuitions that we had six years ago at the start of the Wise mission are proven to be true”, but also underlines that “we are only at the beginning of our journey.

"" We still have other things to find.

"

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