Astronauts achieve huge feats in space but are unable to toast their many achievements with a glass of champagne. That is about to change thanks to the efforts of Vintner Maison Mumm who made the Mumm Grand Cordon Stellar, the first champagne designed for space. After three years of working with design firm Spade, the sparkling wine and its high-tech bottle and glasses have been specially engineered for zero gravity celebrations.
“For the last 40 years, space travel has been shaped by engineers rather than designers,” says Spade founder Octave de Gaulle. “Instead of seeing zero gravity as a problem to be solved, we look at it as a design possibility. The big design challenge for Mumm Grand Cordon Stellar was actually getting the liquid out of the bottle.”
This challenge was presented due to surface tension. The liquid is pulled by the gravity on Earth which allows the liquid to be poured. The lack of gravity in space means the liquid lacks surface tension and it is almost impossible to get it out of the bottle. The company is quiet about the details of how it managed to overcome the difficulty.
The bottle looks like an ordinary champagne bottle with a metal ring stuck on the neck. However, there is a mechanism inside that uses the CO2 that makes the champagne fizz in order to force it out of the bottle. This results in the wine coming out of the bottle as a kind of foam rather than a stream of liquid.
The metal ring on the neck traps this foam and it is then released. It floats like a ball of bubbles in the air and is caught by the drinker using a special glass with a concave cup about 2 inches in diameter. The surface tension holds it in place until the drinker has had a chance to taste it.
According to Mumm’s Cellar Master Didier Mariotti, drinking champagne in space is much different from doing that on Earth. “It’s a very surprising feeling,” says Mariotti. “Because of zero gravity, the liquid instantly coats the entire inside of the mouth, magnifying the taste sensations. There’s less fizziness and more roundness and generosity, enabling the wine to express itself fully.”
“By rising to this new challenge, Mumm defies gravity and once again pushes the limits of innovation,” says Louis de Fautereau, Global Brand Director of Mumm. “This revolutionary bottle illustrates the Maison’s status as an icon of the avant-garde.”
You can check it out in the video below:
