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Photo: Maison Mumm
Have you ever looked at a $300 glass bottle of vintage Dom Perignon and thought — you know what’s missing? An aeronautical-grade aluminium shell, so that the quaff can be imbibed in comfort of outer space. Us neither, though that’s exactly what French champagne house Maison Mumm created with their newly unveiled Cordon Rouge Stellar bubbly.
The project, five years in the making, had a simple goal. For Maison Mumm, it was to craft a bottle that adheres to two sets of austere specifications. Firstly, demands as laid out by Champagne AOC (Appellation d’Origine Controlee), the feted drink’s regulatory body. And that is: the champagne has to be stored and transported in glass while secured with a traditional mushroom cork.
The second, complex requirements necessary to render the bottle of bubbly spaceworthy, as dictated by their collaborative partner Axiom Space. These include nailing down simpler things like food compatibility, ergonomics and ease of use.
Trickier details are also taken into consideration, like material specifications and how the champagne behaves in a zero-gravity environment. For example, pressurised bottles need an extra layer of protection in space. This is to prevent spontaneous fountains of bubbly under any circumstances. A glass bottle shattering due to a misadventure could also prove catastrophic for delicate circuitry.
The result: Maison Mumm’s Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar, a champagne stored within a 375ml glass bottle sheathed in an aeronautical-grade aluminum shell. It comes with an extra ring on the bottle’s neck that keeps the cork in place.
Drink champagne in outer space? Yes, it is possible.
Photo: Maison Mumm
Liquid egress after uncorking comes by way of a button on the bottle’s base – replicating the traditional way champagne is poured, thumb on the bottle’s bottom and all.
Imbibers can choose to have it as a floating bubble – remember, this is meant for space use after all – or with a specially-designed glass. No champagne flutes, we’re afraid.
Just like how food and drink tastes different on an airplane, so too does it vary during extra-terrestrial travel: champagne bubbles don’t rise to the surface of liquid in space, hence inhibiting the release of aroma molecules.
This is why the brand chose a blend of Mumm Cordon Rouge from their 2016 harvest, which are mainly of the Pinot Noir varietal, supplemented with reserve wines from the past five years. According to the house, it “has developed notes of ripe yellow fruit and vine peach, but also dried fruit, hazelnut and praline.”
Which brings us back to Axiom Space, who went through all the trouble of getting champagne spaceworthy with Maison Mumm exactly so that they could serve the bubbly. For who? Well, space tourists, on missions to their commercial space station (that’s still being constructed as we speak). After all, what’s the point of getting to space if you can’t celebrate?
