The next time you go to an upscale restaurant, find the sommelier and see if you can stump them by asking for a bottle of 2010 Meteorito Cabernet Sauvignon. Be sure to include the phrase “I hear it’s out of this world!” The best part is you wouldn’t be lying, since Meteorite’s wine is actually aged with a 4.5 billion-year old space rock that made its way from the asteroid belt to Earth.

Dreamed up by Ian Hutcheon, an English astronomy buff that now lives and works in Chile, Meteorite is a combination of his passion for the stars and — you guessed it — his ownership of a vineyard. Hutcheon decided that he wanted to create a wine experience that would allow you to be able to “taste the birth of the solar system,” and settled upon the idea of placing a meteorite along with a batch of wine into an oak barrel to age for twelve months. The specific meteorite in question belongs to an American collector that didn’t mind parting with his piece of galactic history for a year. Reportedly it’s approximately three-inches in diameter and crashed to the Atacama Desert about 6,000 years ago.

Whether or not the inclusion of a rock that had been floating in space for billions of years makes any impact on the taste of the wine is a subjective matter. You probably would have to be an amateur sommelier yourself to really notice any difference. However, Meteorito is a brilliantly devised product. Hutcheon knows his foodie clientele would jump at the chance to say that they have literally tasted something from outer space. I have to admit that it would be interesting to try it at least once, if I could afford it. We will leave the answer to the question of whether Meteorito is a miracle of gastronomy or just a gimmick to those of you who have had the chance to taste the wine.

source http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/meteor-fermented-wine-miracle-of-gastronomy-or-just-a-gimmick-20120123/