Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar is the first champagne that can be enjoyed in zero gravity. Beyond the technical challenges, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar Champagne is committed to preserving its tasting ritual.
Launched in 2017, this ambitious project now meets safety requirements for adapting to weightlessness. A collaboration between Maison Mumm and Axiom Space will enable the delivery of Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar Champagne during an upcoming Axiom Space mission to test tasting rituals in real-life space conditions.
Complies with CNES specifications
True to the avant-garde spirit begun in 1827, Maison Mumm has been pursuing a project that is both ambitious and innovative since 2017. The first model of Champagne Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar, presented in 2018, helped to frame the project in all its aspects – culture, design – innovation, wine – and to generate technological and oenological findings useful for the development of the second certified model.
With the best experts in their fields, Maison Mumm continued its research and experiments – in collaboration with the SPADE agency, founded by Octave de Gaulle, specializing in the design of space objects, the CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale) and Jean-François Clervoy, French astronaut of the ESA, who carried out three space missions with NASA, including during three test flight campaigns. Maison Mumm's cellar master, Laurent Fresnet, also carried out a parabolic flight to ensure respect for the organoleptic properties and integrity of the wine before finalizing the specific blend of this cuvée.
At the end of the second four-year phase, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar Champagne meets CNES's zero-gravity tasting requirements in terms of safety and technical compliance.
Maison Mumm and Axiom Space inaugurate a new era of champagne
Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar defines it far beyond champagne. César Giron, President of Maison Mumm, said: “Innovation has been an integral part of Maison Mumm’s identity since 1827, and Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar is a perfect example. This project brings together the excellence of French know-how, which makes us proud. As early as 1904, Maison Mumm celebrated the success of the first French expedition to Antarctica with Commander Jean-Baptiste Charcot.”
Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar Champagne will be available on the upcoming Axiom Space mission to test the tasting ritual under real-world spaceflight conditions. This will finalize development and fine-tune the experience.
High-tech design and manufacturing requirements... 100% French
To meet space specifications, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar Champagne had to meet a complex set of constraints (gaseous liquid without gravity, pressure in the bottle, food safety, material specifications, dimensions, ergonomics, etc.). All technical design issues were resolved by Octave de Gaulle and his SPADE agency, which specializes in the design of space objects, with the active support of CNES and the Comat design office. Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar Champagne is composed of three parts:
1 – Packaged in a half-glass bottle, the wine is held in place by a perfectly reliable stainless steel opening and closing device. The champagne only comes into contact with glass and stainless steel – the same as the blending tank at Maison Mumm in Reims… two materials that perfectly ensure its preservation.
2 – Aerospace-grade aluminum shell that protects the glass bottle and provides double security in case one of the systems fails.
3 – The so-called “service” stem consists of a long neck with a cork stopper and a ring… a true technical innovation, both to ensure safety during transport and uncorking, and to serve champagne in a new way in weightlessness.
With its futuristic look, the Champagne Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar nevertheless retains the shape of a champagne bottle and reproduces the ritual of tasting champagne as faithfully as possible.
« Of course, the high-tech and 100% French nature of this project, from design to manufacturing, is very exciting. But above all, it's exciting because the technology serves a broader objective: Champagne captures the memory of a terroir, a climate, ancient expertise, and a tasting ritual. " said Octave de Gaulle, founder of the SPADE agency.
Mumm Cordon Rouge blend for a weightless tasting
The conditions for tasting Champagne in weightlessness are physiologically different, with a distinctly altered sense of smell. The effervescence of the champagne is also changed... the bubbles no longer rise to the surface, they do not release the aromatic molecules they contain. The sensory sequence is particular... vision imposes itself first, then the wine, in the form of foam, makes contact with the lips and mouth. Once in the mouth, this foam coats the walls by capillarity.
As the sense of smell, an essential aspect of tasting, diminishes, the overall perception of wine changes significantly. Some notes are easier to detect than others.
With these particular parameters in mind, Laurent Fresnet favored a blend of Mumm Cordon Rouge made from grapes harvested in 2016, including most of the brand's signature Pinot Noir, and used reserve wines from the last five years. My goal is to preserve the freshness and strength of Mumm Cordon Rouge, by strengthening the intensity of its aromas through longer aging and by using a dosage liqueur made from wines aged in oak barrels. " explains Laurent Fresnet, cellar master at Maison Mumm.
Aged on slats for up to five years, the champagne reveals notes of ripe yellow fruits, vine peaches, as well as dried fruits, hazelnuts, and praline. A dosage liqueur made from wine aged in oak barrels lends vanilla and pastry notes. Laurent Fresnet has thus highlighted the characteristics of the Mumm style—freshness, intensity, complexity—to adapt to tasting conditions with altered senses of smell and taste.
The first Champagne to be enjoyed in weightlessness, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar Champagne contributes to the excellence and influence of French expertise.
* Due to the colloquial confusion between "gravity" and "weightlessness", it is now preferable to use the termweightlessness. Moreover, weightlessness is a theoretical ideal that does not exist in reality… there are always parasitic forces and therefore residual gravity. So, on spacecraft, what we usually call microgravity has a value close to one millionth of Earth's gravity.
André Tirlet
