Science

Guess What Space Item This Wine Was Aged With

Wine professionals describe Cabernet Sauvignon as having a black current aroma that can develop as it ages into richer bouquets of cedar, violet or leather. But here‘s a new note for the sommelier’s recommending a specific bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon should learn: it may pair well with freeze-dried astronaut food and has a slight hint of meteorite. You heard right: meteorite.

Space Enthusiast Ages Wine With 4.5 Billion Year Old Meteorite

This wine is aged with a meteorite in the barrel. (Image: Centro Astronomico)

According to Discovery News, an enterprising space enthusiast decided to experiment with a fermentation process using a space rock from an “American collector.” It is the first time a meteorite has been used in the wine-making process.

Discovery News reports Ian Hutcheon, an Englishman who lives in Chile where he started his own observatory in 2007, creates “Meteorito” wine using a 3-inch wide meteorite estimated to be 4.5 billion years old and said to have landed on Earth 6,000 years ago. Hutcheon is reported as saying that the meteorite gives the wine a “livelier taste.”

Discovery News describes that the meteorite was in an oak barrel for a year in a process called malolactic fermentation, which takes place after the wine’s primary fermentation:

[Malolactic fermentation] is achieved by lactic acid bacteria, notably Oenococcus oeni. There are others, of course, but the Aroma Dictionary informs me that this bacteria in particular “typically processes substances that have pleasant and wine sympathetic aromas and flavors.” And those flavors are imparted to the wine as it ages in a wooden barrel.

[...]

“When you drink this wine, you are drinking elements from the birth of the solar system,” Hutchinson said, adding that he wanted “to give everybody the opportunity to touch something from space: the very history of the solar system, and feel it via a grand wine.”

Independent Wine Review reports that 1,100 twelve bottle cases of “Meteorito” Cabernet Sauvignon have been made thus far, and they are only sold out of Hutcheon’s observatory, Centro Astronomico Tagua Tagua.

[H/T Gizmodo]

Comments (27)

  • mcFirst
    Posted on January 25, 2012 at 10:30pm

    george soros breath

    Report Post » mcFirst  
  • cdcats8
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 9:36pm

    I have a chunk of coal on my back porch salvaged from my grandparents long long ago. I will get my husband to use part of it in his next batch of wine and see what he can come up with.

    Report Post »  
  • FantaGirl
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:02pm

    I have always wondered If I am the youngest Blaze.com user. I’m under the voting age even. But not being allowed to drink wine; how does dirt affect the taste of a drink, other than cause intense spitting (out the drink) by those who have drunk it?

    Report Post » FantaGirl  
  • flatbroke
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:46pm

    Sorry! but i do not want to drink wine with space turds in it! i prefer local wine ! LOL!

    Report Post » flatbroke  
  • 4kidsandacat
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 11:58am

    Ummmmm…..The first thing that popped into my head when I read this?

    Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

    Wonder what microscopic alien life form is piggy backing on these molecules waiting to convert us?

    Report Post » 4kidsandacat  
  • tlchands
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 11:43am

    This wine is like something you could find at certain product site for science enthusiasts and geeks (which is a really great site). It seems like scientists and geeks can have a pretense all their own so it sounds like a good marketing strategy to me. Bottom line: if it sells the wine, why not?

    Report Post »  
  • WakeUp
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:37am

    This reminds me of the $10,000 mint jubilees. They were made with ice imported from a glacier. Frozen H2O is frozen H2O. Good thing their are liberal elites to buy this stuff!

    Report Post »  
  • BDan6248
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:00am

    People take in elements from the birth of the Solar system every time they open their mouths…

    Report Post »  
    • RRFlyer
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:40am

      I was going to say: Isn’t everything on the earth from the birth of the Solar System?
      IF that’s not good enough. some scientists say all our water came from comets. Just a gimmick.

      Report Post »  
  • lukerw
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 8:34am

    Space Invaders desire to… convert our Species…

    Report Post » lukerw  
  • truthhasno
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 4:58am

    What a waste of “Space” – HA HA!

    Report Post »  
  • elihu
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:24am

    IMHO, ‘wine snobs’ are pretentious…

    Report Post » elihu  
    • Wolf
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 6:55am

      Yup- as though those people know what my tastes will enjoy.

      Report Post »  
  • christos
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 12:56am

    Woopdedodah,,,with molecular manufacturing 3,000 year old wine can be created…who needs old stones,just move and modify some atoms around…Gotta love the snake oil salesman,,,their in the reptilian family.

    Report Post » christos  
    • TXPilot
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 1:45am

      I just noticed that I have thousands of ancient rocks all around my property……Now all I need is a barrel of cheap wine, to throw them into, and a bunch of wine drinking, elitist retards with money, and I will be rich!!

      Report Post » TXPilot  
  • Witness1974
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 12:43am

    6,000 years? maybe, although how does one tell impact time from formation time? 4.5 billion years? What does that even mean? More fables for children who enjoy the dark. Here’s the real story: Those suckers who have been born every minute, well some of them like to drink wine they think is special because a guy dropped a rock in the barrel before he sealed it a year ago.

    Report Post »  
  • mauijonny
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 12:35am

    “METEORITO.” Hmmmmm….:?

    OK. I dunno. I give up.

    Report Post » mauijonny  
  • Kaoscontrol
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 12:32am

    And so, why is the rock out in my driveway not the same age? Wasn’t it formed about the same time as the rest of our solar system? Anything to sell a bottle of wine, I guess….

    Report Post » Kaoscontrol  
    • TheJeffersonian
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:03am

      No, not at all. How does that even logically follow? Not even everything on Earth formed at the same time.

      Report Post » TheJeffersonian  
    • RRFlyer
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:05pm

      THEJEFFERSONIAN, scientific mumbo jumbo. Everything on the Earth originated with the birth of the Solar System.
      I look a lot different than when I was born, I probably do not have any part of me that was there when I was born, but I was formed in my Mother’s womb.
      Everything on the Earth was there at the beginning, no matter how you try to rationalize it. The Earth is the same age as the Solar System, period.

      Report Post »  
  • Your Name Here
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 12:23am

    Drinking this gives you space rocks in your head.

    Report Post » Your Name Here  
  • Monty@whoa
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 12:23am

    Malolactic fermentation is the conversion of malic (apple) acid to lactic (milk) acid by the bacterial strain mentioned.
    That said. 1,100 cases? Thats one big barrel. 2,578.98 gallons.
    A typical wine barrel is 59 gallons. That must have been a potent, or magical rock.

    Report Post »  
  • vtxphantom
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 12:16am

    In other words, dirt. Ok, space dirt.

    Report Post »  
  • USAMEDIC3008
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 12:10am

    My guess would have been
    ASTEROID or MOON
    that spells Wine

    Report Post » USAMEDIC3008  

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