A bottle of Petrus 2000 aged for 14 months in space will go under hammer at Christie’s private wine sales.
The value of the wine is estimated to fetch over US$ 1 million, according to some media reports.
The wine will come in a unique trunk, made by the Parisian Maison d’Arts Les Ateliers Victor, with a decanter, glasses and a corkscrew made from a meteorite.
The cosmic wine is part of a series of experiments undertaken by Space Cargo Unlimited, a one-of-a-kind European “New Space” start-up to understand the ageing process of wine in space in a zero-gravity environment in 2019.
The cosmic wine will come in a trunk with a decanter, glasses and a corkscrew made from a meteorite (Pic: Christie’s Images Ltd. 2021) 
Closeup of the space-aged Petrus 2000 (Pic: Christie’s Images Ltd. 2021) 
A bottle of Petrus 2000 that spent 14 months ageing in space will go under hammer at Chrstie’s (Pic: Christie’s Images Ltd. 2021)
This was the first privately led, applied-research program named Mission WISE (Vitis Vinum in Spatium Experimentia), which over the course of six experiments, seeks to research how plants adapt to the stress of space conditions to develop innovative solutions for the future of food and agriculture on Earth.
Apparently when a panel of 12 scientists and wine professionals tasted the wines in Bordeaux in March, Jane Anson, a wine expert and writer with Decanter, said the terrestrial wine seems to have aged faster and that the wine remained on Earth tasted “a little younger than the one that had been to space.”
The grape vine cuttings brought along the mission are also found to have grown faster than their counterparts on earth, despite limited supply of water and light, according to an AP report.
“This bottle of Pétrus 2000 marks a momentous step in the pursuit of developing and gaining a greater understanding of the maturation of wine. Christie’s is delighted to bring this first of its kind bottle to the market and to support Space Cargo Unlimited to continue their research into the future of agricultural practices,” comments Tim Triptree MW, International Director, Christie’s Wine & Spirits Department.
Nicolas Gaume, Cofounder and CEO of Space Cargo Unlimited, adds, “We are thrilled to partner with Christie’s and propose a unique artefact of spatial research. After spending almost 440 days in Space, or the equivalent of 300 trips to the moon, legendary Bordeaux wine Pétrus comes back having been transformed in a way which is, literally, out of this world.”
The proceeds of the sale will go towards funding future space missions, offering collectors an opportunity to acquire a piece of vinous and space history while also contributing to ongoing research.
The wine is available for immediate purchase via Christie’s Private Sales.
