Sending a vial of Whisky to space, and then drinking it? Why not.

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It starts with Texans. Of course they’re from Texas. What you think in 2011 a vial of Ardbeg from a damp, remote Scottish Island just happened upon intergalactic travel?

No. Let me take you back to 2011. Adele - Rolling in the deep, Katy Perry - Firework, The Black Eyed Peas existed. But we don’t care about any of that. We care about one email.

An email from Nanoracks, a Texas-based research company. And they had an idea.

There’s been discussion around the impact of gravity and movement on the ageing of whisky for many years. The idea is if a whisky is constantly moving, its touching the outside of the barrel, increasing in flavour profile. Others claim that it absolutely nothing. But they’re naysayers, probably drink gin.

Incidentally next week, we’re doing a story about Kentucky Bourbon which is aged in boats that constantly traverse the globe. But this week we’re looking skyward. 

I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation. And yes, my proof reader just slapped me. I’ll keep the space related puns to a minimum.

The experiment was to work as follows: a vial of unmatured whisky was to be sent to the international space station for three years, and an identical vial was to be kept on earth. The hope was that they will be able to better understand the effect of zero gravity on the complex molecules that make up whisky. And to investigate the impact these molecules have on taste and flavour profile. Whilst they wait, Ardbeg pays tribute to the vial in space and the experiment by launching a limited edition 12 year old called Galeleo. 

Skip forward. It’s 2014, Happy by Pharrell Williams, Taytays shake it off, the world cup in Brazil, and our vial returns to earth.

According to Ardbeg the findings of the experiment were “ground-breaking”, distinct and noticeable differences in the flavour profiles of the two vials. Dr Bill Lumsden, the head distiller at Ardbeg said of the space sample,  “it became clear that much more of Ardbeg's smoky, phenolic character shone through - to reveal a different set of smoky flavours which I have not encountered here on earth before."

Now, I’m not entirely sure what “phenolic” means but fortunately, the distillery describes in detail the difference in the two, saying the space sample has “ an intense aroma” with “hints of antiseptic smoke, rubber and smoked fish” as well as a “long” aftertaste of “antiseptic lozenges and rubbery smoke”. Descriptive indeed.

To me that kind of sounds like drinking antiseptic, and maybe sending the whisky to space does it no favours. To be honest I’m fine with them leaving it in Scotland.

However, the difference in taste does prove that something happened up there. UV exposure? Aliens? Or a bored astronaut decided to fill the vial with fish and lozenges.