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World’s first meteorite-aged wine launched
An Englishman working in Chile has launched what is believed to be the first wine aged with a meteorite formed during the birth of the solar system.
Norwich-born Ian Hutcheon has released a Cabernet Sauvignon called Meteorito, aged with a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite from the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The extra-terrestrial wine was created at Hutcheon’s Tremonte Vineyard in the Cachapoal Valley in Chile, which he bought in 2009.
“I’ve been involved in wines and astronomy for many, many years and I wanted to find some way of combining the two,” Hutcheon said.
“When you drink this wine, you are drinking elements from the birth of the solar system,” he added.
Belonging to an American collector, the three-inch meteorite is believed to have crashed into the Atacama Desert in northern Chile around 6,000 years ago.
“The idea behind submerging it in wine was to give everybody the opportunity to touch something from space; the very history of the solar system, and feel it via a grand wine,” Hutcheon said.
In April 2010, Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were picked from Hutcheon’s mountain vineyard, planted on an old gold mine 100km south-west of Chile’s capital Santiago.
The fruit was then fermented for 25 days, before undergoing malolactic fermentation for 12 months – it was during this process that the wine was held in a wooden barrel with the meteorite, before being blended with another batch of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Hutcheon believes the meteorite gives the wine a “livelier taste”.
Meteorito is currently only sold at the Centro Astronomico Tagua Tagua – an observatory launched by Hutcheon in 2007, but the winemaker is keen to export it to other countries, including the UK.
Around 10,000 litres of the meteor-aged wine have been made.
In 2013 the Centro Astronomico Tagua Tagua will host the International Astronomy Congress.
It will be interesting to try the wine when it comes to the UK by at www.winegifts4u.co.uk team. What will be sold for?
Every wine contains elements from the birth of the solar system. As does coca cola, cheese and anything from this planet including the planet itself. Hopefully the wine is better than its gimmick.
Well, that’s one way of selling crap wine to un-educated wine drinkers and make
them believe that they are “stars” in wine appreciation.
10,000 litres of wine. Three-inch meteorite. Hilarious. Hope they stirred it well to ensure every lucky drinker gets a molecule of space rock in their bottle.
I wonder how much of the blend is made up by the mysterious “other” batch of Cabernet Sauvignon – presumably 98%…
The most creatively desperate publicity stunt I’ve seen for a while!
Sound a bit like homeopathic wine 😉
Can I get that on prescription? Please ….?
Actually, scrap that idea. Just remembered the prescription charge is about three quid higher than the average wine cost in the UK. Ho hum.
You took the words right out of my mouth Alex.
The wine that we make derives some of its character from granite and quartz in the soil – both originating from the magma of the earth’s crust. Perhaps we should charge a premium for this too!
Publicity Stunts are effective communication tools when used well and useless time wasters when they are not…
Good luck…
The water from your tap contains hydrogen made in the birth of the Universe. That beats the meteorite molecules by about, oh, 8 billion years.
The standard size of a wine barrel is around 225 Liters. This means that he blended the one barrel with the meteorite with 43 or 44 standard barrels of wine. Nice racket!
I would like to taste this “cosmic” wine!!!
do u export it to germany??????
u.schnoor
why dont someone make a wine with neil armstrong’s poop