Thumbs up for fine wine that orbited Earth

Philippe Darriet, president of the Institute for Wine and Vine Research (ISVV) and chief oenologist, holds a bottle of Petrus red wine that spent a year orbiting the world in the ISS. — Photos: AP

It tastes like rose petals. It smells like a campfire. It glistens with a burnt-orange hue. What is it? A €5,000 (RM24,330) bottle of Petrus Pomerol wine that spent a year in space.

Researchers in Bordeaux are analysing a dozen bottles of the precious liquid – along with 320 snippets of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines – that returned to Earth in January after a sojourn aboard the International Space Station.