You might think that wine from Mars or the Moon is a crazy publicity stunt but two world-renowned meteorite hunters from Poligny in the Jura wine region have embarked on a serious wine making adventure.
Bruno Fectay and Carine Bidaut have used a process to dilute the particles of celestial bodies specially developed for them by Professor of Geochemistry Jean-Alix Barrat of the University of Western Brittany. With the help of Champagne maker Roger Flores and entrepreneur Jacky Carpentier they have actually created two sparkling wines that contain soluable particles of Lunar basalts and Martian meteorites . . .
Bruno Fectay explained:
“We wanted to make a crazy project that has never been done before: use the Moon and Mars, to give a taste from another world. Many promise the moon, but this is the first time someone has put in a bottle.”
These pioneers have set up a company Era Nova and 60 jeroboams have been produced each of Essence de Lune and Extrait de Mars. The celestial contents of the sparkling wines were authenticated in front of a bailiff and two independent laboratories have assigned a certificate of purity, proving the safety and quality of the product. The particles are invisible to the naked eye and I have yet to see any tasting notes – which is a shame as I think they’d be rather fun.
The price? It’s not disclosed – however it’s bound to be astronomical . . . (sorry, but I couldn’t help that).
The jeroboams are presented in containers used by NASA and each bottle has a jewelled medallion carved from a meteorite. The bottles also come in a case covered in rose gold for the Extrait de Mars and platinum for Essence de Lune.
In addition Era Nova also manufacture cigars whose tobacco leaves are impregnated with Lunar and Martian solutions. The cigar collections Phoenix and Apollo are made by one of the last two French manufacturers of tobacco where cigars are still hand rolled by expert Dominican torcedor Jose Reyes and the owner Valery de Guisa. Each cigar is encircled by a meteorite ring covered in platinum.
The sparkling wines imbued with particles celestial bodies is a world first – however there is one other wine made from a meteorite: Meteorito. This was created by astronomer Ian Hutcheon who runs both the Tremonte Vineyard and the nearby astronomy centre, Centro Astronomico Tagua Tagua in Chile. The wine is made by ageing it with a meteorite that came from the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter and is 4.5 billion years old (see my blog: Wine From Out Of This World – Literally).
It all sounds out of this world doesn’t it?
