A good drop has its price, but this one has it all: The wine from the French vineyard Château Petrus near Bordeaux – aged for a full 14 months in space – is said to be worth the equivalent of over CHF 900,000.
The auction house Christie’s in New York (USA) is offering a bottle of the said wine at this proud estimate. If a buyer is found for the drop, it would be the most expensive in the world, writes «ntv».
Changed color and taste notes
The wine is from 2000 and is one of a total of twelve Grand Crus that were sent to the International Space Station ISS for 14 months in 2019. According to Christie’s, the red wines aged outside of the earth returned to Earth in January.
But is the wine still drinkable at all? Yes, according to the experts who tested the Grand Crus in early March. The wine is still very good, but has also “changed remarkably”, announced the auction house.
So color and taste are no longer the same. Nevertheless: The French wine with a touch of “space maturity” is still top quality. Tests at the Institute for Wine Sciences at the University of Bordeaux would have shown this.
Maximum price paid for wine to date: 511,000 francs
Not everyone is allowed to bid, because the auction house does not want to auction the galactic wine publicly. And which fund does the proceeds go to? According to «ntv», the money will help finance future agricultural research in space.
Petrus wines are generally anything but bargain: a bottle usually costs several thousand francs. The most expensive wine sold to date is a 0.75 liter bottle of Romanée-Conti from 1945.
The auction house Sotheby’s, also in New York, achieved a sales price of almost 511,000 francs for a bottle in 2018. It is not known who the noble drop went to. (une)