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Wine from Château Petrus: Aged in space for 14 months
Photo: PHILIPPE LOPEZ / AFP
The New York auction house Christie's is auctioning a bottle of red wine from the prestigious Château Petrus winery near Bordeaux, which was subjected to a special aging period on the International Space Station (ISS).
The estimated price is the equivalent of 830,000 euros.
Should it actually be achieved, it would be the most expensive wine bottle in the world.
The wine from the 2000 vintage is one of a total of twelve Grand Crus that only returned to Earth after 14 months from the ISS in January.
Tests at the Institute for Wine Sciences at the University of Bordeaux showed that they remained top quality wines even in space, even though their color and some smell or taste notes had changed.
The galactic wine is not part of a public auction.
Rather, it is a private auction in which the buyer and price - if desired - remain under lock and key.
The proceeds will be used to finance future space missions dealing with agricultural research.
Petrus wines are some of the most expensive in the world.
A bottle usually costs several thousand euros.
The previous maximum price for a 0.75 liter bottle of wine was achieved at Sotheby's in 2018: At that time, a bottle of Romanée-Conti vintage 1945 changed hands for $ 558,000.
mik / AFP