What tastes like wine aged in outer space?

Because wine quality changes depending on the grape variety used as a raw material, the soil to be grown, the climate, etc., wine producers repeat trial and error and aim to improve quality. European space development startup Space Cargo Unlimited and grape wine science research institute ISVV bring Chateau Petrus, one of the world’s most expensive wines, and trees used for grafting grapes to the space station. , Conducted experiments and held a tasting of wine aged for one year in space.

Together, the two sides sent 12 Chateau Perlus bottles and 320 vines to the International Space Station ISS. The team involved in the experiment revealed that the main purpose of going to space was to see how the wine aging process functions and how it can affect the aging process.

Twelve bottles of wine safely returned to Earth after being aged for one year at ISS. Chateau Perlus spent 200 years in space. One wine expert said it all tasted splendid, but what remained on Earth was still a bit closed and had more tannins and younger. While there are claims that there is a difference between the two wines, not all of the tasters feel that there is a difference in wine. Another wine expert stated that it was not easy to define, and frankly, it was difficult to discern the difference.

The research team heard the convective difference between the ground and the right as a reason for the difference between the two wines. Before pouring wine into a glass container called a decanter or shaking in a glass, wine oxidation accelerates and changes in taste and aroma appear. It was revealed that it maintains a constant oxygen concentration. However, since convection is difficult to occur in zero-gravity outer space, oxidation is difficult to proceed.

Understanding the effects of gravity and oxygen on the aging process can lead to the development of methods to ripen wine quickly.

Meanwhile, in this experiment, grape trees used for wine were also sent to space. It is said that even though light and water are limited in outer space, all 320 sent trees survived and grew at a faster rate than those on the ground. Since organisms can acquire new properties by external stress, weightlessness is expected to enable grapes to acquire resilience to problems such as climate change, disease, and soil with high salt concentrations. The research team will analyze the trees for several more months and spend a year in outer space to investigate any changes. Related information can be found here.