Bordeaux wines aged in space to be tasted in February

The future of wine is through space.

This February brings the tasting of Bordeaux wines aged in orbit, followed by the analysis of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon samples back from space.

Certainly they won’t have an "aftertaste of meteorite" or "hints of stardust", but the 12 bottles of Bordeaux wine that have orbited around earth for a year on the ISS (the International Space Station), along with over three hundred and twenty samples of grapevines sent in March 2020, could uncover knowledge useful for wines of the future.  Which is a general goal of space experiments, where agriculture and food have become more and more a central focus.

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The bottles, according to LaPresse agency, should be tasted in February 2021 by a team of experts in France, as well as the parts of grape vines.  Both bottles and vines were sent to the ISS thanks to the technologies of Space Cargo Unlimited, in support of a project which also involves the Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin, in Bordeaux, France.

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The project’s aim is to research if space radiation and microgravity influence the components of wine during the aging process, and draw useful knowledge about food in space.  In the case of grapevine varieties of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, 320 specimens have been in space for 6 months, “one of the longest periods for an experiment of this kind”, explained "Space Cargo Unlimited”.  They will be examined, mainly to understand their abilities of adaptation to environmental conditions.