Ground Control to Major Dram

In what has just got to be a first for the spirits industry, several servings of Ardbeg Scotch has just returned from outer space.

To repeat: Scotch whisky in space.

How we did not know about this before, I’ll never know, but the story goes like this: In 2011, the Ardbeg Distillery sent several vials of Ardbeg Scotch new-make whisky, along with some wood shavings from American oak barrels, into space.

As part of an experimental partnership between Ardbeg and a US-based space research company called NanoRack, the whisky spent the last three years aboard the International Space Station. The whisky orbited the earth, circling the planet at 17,227 miles per hour, 15 times a day, for 1,045 days.

After the vials of whisky were returned to earth, they were revealed for the first time at a reception held on October 23, 2014 at The Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum in New York City. The vials, which had been insured for $1 Million, were officially returned to Dr. Bill Lumsden, Ardbeg’s Director of Distilling and Whisky Creation. Dr. Lumsdem, we presume, is planning on studying the effects of zero gravity on terpenes, aldephydes, and fatty acid esters; and hoping to discover what, if any, impact of gravity has on the maturation processes  of some of the compounds found in Scotch.

Ardbeg’s newest limited malt edition Scotch was released at the reception as well. Named to commemorate the return of the Ardbeg vials from space it is named – wait for it – Supernova 2014.

Established in 1815, Ardbeg is considered to be one of the “peatiest, smokiest, and most complex” of the Islay malts. Perhaps we can now add “most traveled” or “most out-of-this-world” to that list!

The Bubbly Professor is “Miss Jane” Nickles of Austin, Texas   missjane@prodigy.net