Maison Mumm has revealed the final design of Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar – the first champagne bottle and tasting experience designed for space travel and human spaceflight.
In an historic collaboration with Axiom Space, a leader in commercial human spaceflight, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar will join Axiom’s human spaceflight programme and fly on future space missions.
Initiated in 2017, the project has now achieved full compliance with space cargo specifications and AOC Champagne regulations.
Following on this achievement, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar will join Axiom’s upcoming crewed missions to low Earth orbit and extend the collaboration to Axiom Station, the world’s first commercial space station, to test and discover the tasting ritual in the real conditions of space.
In order to comply with the dual space-AOC Champagne specifications, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar had to meet a complex set of constraints (e.g. gaseous liquid in the absence of gravity, pressure contained in the bottle, food compatibility, material specifications, size, ergonomics and intuitive use).
Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar is designed in three parts:
Contained in a half glass bottle, the wine is secured by a perfectly reliable stainless steel opening-closing device. It only comes into contact with glass and stainless steel, identical to Mumm’s blending vats in Reims – two materials that ideally ensure its preservation. This assembly fully meets the constraints dictated by the champagne.
A shell made of aeronautical-grade aluminium protects the glass bottle. The upper part, known as the “service” part, is composed of a long neck topped by a cork and a ring (which allows the cork to be retained and locks the bottle’s stainless steel mechanism). These two elements fully respond to the constraints dictated by space.
With its futuristic appearance, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar nevertheless has a shape that’s similar to a traditional champagne bottle and reproduces as faithfully as possible the ritual of champagne tasting.
“This project is, of course, very stimulating because of its highly technological nature and its 100% French identity, from design to manufacturing,” says Octave de Gaulle, founder of the SPADE agency.
“But it is also very exciting because technology serves a greater purpose here: champagne condenses the memory of a terroir, a climate, an ancestral savoir-faire and tasting sensations for all those who will evolve far from Earth.”
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