Champagne Left the Planet

For centuries, champagne has been a companion to human achievement; uncorked at launches, victories, and turning points. Now, for the first time in history, it’s not just celebrating space exploration. It’s joining it.

Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar, the world’s first champagne designed for tasting in zero gravity, is preparing to leave Earth.

On the upcoming Ax-4 mission, led by American astronaut Peggy Whitson and operated by Axiom Space, this pioneering cuvée will mark a symbolic moment: the introduction of champagne into the ritual of space travel.

This is a cultural gesture; an attempt to preserve the human experience, even in the most unfamiliar environments. A way to carry the essence of celebration, tradition, and terroir beyond our atmosphere.

Champagne has always marked the beginning of a new chapter: launches, landings, milestones, and celebrations of life's special moments. In that sense, Mumm’s latest creation is symbolic. It’s a vessel, literal and emotional, that carries legacy.

The Cordon Rouge Stellar’s space-readiness is the result of nearly a decade of research, design, and collaboration between unlikely but complementary partners: Maison Mumm, the French space agency CNES, astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, and space designer Octave de Gaulle.

Together, they’ve created a drinking experience that respects both the laws of physics and the codes of tradition.

Think of it as ritual engineering.

The stainless-steel and glass half-bottle, inspired by the blending vats in Reims, is both practical and poetic. It adheres to the strict requirements of space travel while evoking the aesthetics of craftsmanship.

It’s a bottle designed not just to hold champagne, but to honour it; even in orbit.

Creating a champagne that can thrive in microgravity is no small feat. Flavour itself changes when you’re floating. The senses dull. Aromas are muted. Champagne, a wine celebrated for its nuance, risks losing its voice.

Enter Yann Munier, Mumm’s Cellar Master, whose challenge was not only to preserve Cordon Rouge’s iconic profile but to amplify it in conditions where nothing behaves as expected.

The final blend, aged longer and enhanced with oak-matured liqueur, was refined for resilience. It’s more than a technical success. It’s a sensory one.

But the project’s deeper resonance lies in its philosophy.

It’s not about indulgence, it’s about connection. To Earth. To memory. To the ritual of pausing and toasting to something bigger than oneself.

The Ax-4 mission, launching from Florida in 2025 with astronaut Peggy Whitson at the helm, will mark the first ceremonial tasting of Cordon Rouge Stellar in space.

It will be a milestone, not only for the champagne industry, but for humanity’s evolving relationship with the cosmos.

What do we carry with us when we leave Earth?

Mumm believes we carry our culture. And culture, at its heart, is a shared story. One that lives in the bubbles of a glass raised in celebration even when there’s no “up” or “down.”

As the world moves into an era where orbit becomes accessible and off-planet living shifts from science fiction to science planning, Mumm’s gesture is an act of preservation; of terroir, of savoir-faire, of joy.

In orbit, champagne may never pop. There is no cork flying, no fizz spilling, no flutes clinking. But there will be memory. Of Reims. Of vineyards and cellars. Of humanity’s instinct to pause, reflect, and celebrate wherever we are.

In that moment, floating hundreds of miles above the Earth, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar becomes more than a drink. It becomes a message.

A toast from Earth, to the infinite.