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Maison Mumm launches first Champagne designed for space travel
Champagne house Maison Mumm has revealed the design of Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar, the first Champagne bottle designed for space travel.
The bottle itself has been designed to cope with space’s zero-gravity environment. The wine is secured within a half glass bottle by a stainless steel opening device, ensuring the liquid only comes into contact with inert materials.
An aluminium shell protects the glass bottle, and the upper part of the bottle is composed of a long neck topped by a cork and a ring, which allows the cork to be retained and locks the bottle’s stainless steel mechanism.
Despite its futuristic appearance, the design has a shape similar to that of a traditional champagne bottle.
The Champagne has also been designed with the conditions of space travel in mind. In zero-gravity conditions bubbles no longer rise to the top of the glass, limiting the aromas released by the wine. Mumm Rouge takes the form of foam, to be inhaled through the mouth.
Taking into account these specific parameters, cellar master Laurent Fresnet has selected a blend of Mumm Cordon Rouge made with grapes from the 2016 harvest, which includes a majority of Pinot Noir — the House’s signature grape variety – and is supplemented with reserve wines from the past five years (up to 36%).
“My goal was to retain the freshness and power of Mumm Cordon Rouge, and to enhance the intensity of its aromas with more ageing and a dosage liqueur made with wines aged in oak barrels,” said Fresnet.
Fresnet also participated in a simulated flight to understand the impact of zero-gravity conditions on the wine and guarantee its integrity in finalising the specific blend of the Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar cuvée.
Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar was designed in collaboration with Axiom Space, a company focused on the development of commercial human spaceflight, and will join Axiom’s human spaceflight programme with plans to fly on future space missions.
Maison Mumm has been pursuing the project since 2017, and revealed the new bottle at the International Astronautics Congress hosted in the Paris Observatory on 21 September 2022.
The bottle was also created in collaboration with Octave de Gaulle, founder of SPADE, an agency specialising in the design of objects for space application, and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the national French space agency.
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