(TDB) - Chateau Haut-Bailly may become the first claret to be enjoyed in space after the estate puts its name to a wine bottle designed for use in zero-gravity.

The circular bottle was created by design student Octave de Gaulle as part of his Civilizing Space project, which is being exhibited at Bordeaux’s Museum of Decorative Arts and Design.

The bottle, which carries a specially made Haut-Bailly label, is one of a range of designs de Gaulle has created to “enable people to take a bit of their earthly culture into the skies”, the designer told Le Pan.

The bottle is designed to be connected to a drinking utensil that resembles a conductor’s baton with a circular grip attached.

Château Haut-Bailly came to be involved in the project as a result of being a patron of the museum.

Veronique Sanders, general manager of Haut-Bailly, said: “We had the honour and privilege to meet and host French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy at Château Haut-Bailly a few years ago. He is a brilliant, passionate space professional with whom it would be great to share a glass of Haut-Bailly while learning more about our universe.”

While the Grave estate may lay claim to being the first bottle created for space travel, it is not the first time wine has been considered as a space libation.

Sherry fails to launch

In the 1970s, following extensive research on ways to improve astronauts’ dining experience, Nasa’s Charles Bourland considered introducing cream Sherry as part of their space rations. Bourland shared his recipes and reminiscences in his book The Astronaut’s Cookbook.

Following consultation with professors at the University of California, Davis, Sherry was chosen because its natural stability would make it easier to be repackaged for space journeys.

Paul Masson California Rare Cream Sherry was chosen following a taste test of Sherries, and was ordered for the 70s Skylab mission.

However the Sherry received a lukewarm response from Nasa astronauts preparing for the mission. Indeed, it was reported that when the drink was tested prior to the Skylab mission on Nasa’s special low-gravity ‘Vomit Comet’ aeroplane, the smell made several astronauts nauseous.

Plans to take the Sherry into space were subsequently dropped.

Other drinks to have entered the space age include Scotch whisky. The drinks business reported last year how a vial of Ardbeg had returned to earth after three years in orbit.

The vial of un-matured malt whisky containing particles of charred oak was blasted up to the International Space Station in 2011 as part of an experiment to discover whether there were any differences in the ageing process between whiskies aged in space and those matured on earth.