This Bottle Of Wine That Aged In Space Is Being Auctioned For An Estimated $1 Million
A bottle of wine that aged for a year in space is being auctioned off to one lucky winner. The exclusive Pétrus 2000 bottle is estimated to sell for about $1 million according to wine experts.
Pétrus 2000 was made with merlot grapes in the Bordeaux region, and according to a report by BBC, this particular bottle spent 14 months in orbit. Twelve total bottles were sent to space by the International Space Station in November of 2019 and they returned to Earth in January of this year. The bottles spent over 400 days in space and traveled around 186 million miles.
Scientists and a group of wine tasters analyzed the batch of wine at the University of Bordeaux's wine institute to see if there were any differences. Pétrus 2000 is a special type of wine because it is known for its ability to age well and can do so for over 70 years. Vintage bottles of Pétrus 2000 that are aged earthside sell for $6,000.
BBC spoke with Jane Anson, a journalist and author of Inside Bordeaux, a book about the wine region, who was one of the lucky few to try some of the wine after its galactic journey. "It's hard for me to say if it was better or worse. But it was definitely different," she told the outlet: "The aromatics were more floral and more smoky—the things that would happen anyway to Petrus as it gets older."
The bottle being auctioned is the only one from the batch that will hit the market. Of the 12 bottles that went to space, three were opened for tasting and the remaining eight will be held for further tasting, testing, and researching. The auctioned bottle of Pétrus 2000 will be sold in a specially designed case that will include a typical aged bottle so the recipient can taste the two and compare them.
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