VOA慢速英语--太空“陈酿”葡萄酒即将拍卖,预计拍出100万美元

For 14 months, a French wine aged¹ in space. Now, it has returned to Earth to be sold.

A single bottle from a case of space-aged Bordeaux is being put up for sale by the auction² house Christie's. It may cost up to $1 million.

The wine is a 2000 vintage Petrus. It is considered a world-class red wine made from Merlot grapes in the Pomerol region of Bordeaux. The sale was announced Tuesday in London.

Tim Triptree works for Christie's wine and spirits division. He said the bottle adds to a "greater understanding of the maturation of wine."

The money from the sale will go to the European rocket company, Space Cargo³ Unlimited⁴. The company has experimented with viticulture and microgravity. It launched the 12 bottles of Petrus 2000 in November 2019, and flew them to the International Space Station.

The bottles were taken back to Earth in January. They spent almost 440 days, and about 300 million kilometers, in orbit.

The wine returned to Bordeaux, where a bottle was opened for a taste test at the Institute for Wine and Vine Research. Top wine experts compared the space-aged wine with Petrus bottles that stayed on Earth.

Jane Anson is a leading wine critic and a writer for the wine magazine Decanter. She and the other two experts thought there was a clear difference between the two.

The space bottle "seems more evolved than I would expect from a 21-year-old bottle of Petrus 2000," Anson said in Decanter.

"It is beautiful and nuanced, with fine tannins and a sense energy."

The wine investment company Vinovest says a bottle of Petrus 2000 usually costs about $5,366. One sold at auction for $51,660 in 2018.

Christie's is selling a bottle of the space-aged wine, along with a bottle of the original Earth-aged Petrus 2000. The purchase also includes a set of glasses and a corkscrew made from a meteorite⁵.

Christie's says the sale price could reach $1 million.

Words in This Story

auction-n. a public sale at which things are sold to the people who offer to pay the most

grape – n. the fruit that is used to make wine

mature-adj. having reached a final or desired state

viticulture-n. the study of grape cultivation⁶

orbit –n. the curved path that something (such as a moon or satellite) follows as it goes around something else (such as a planet)

evolved-n. to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state : to develop by a process of evolution

nuance-n. a very small difference in color, tone, meaning, etc.

tannin-n. a reddish acid that comes from plants, is used in making ink and leather, and occurs in various foods and drinks (such as wine)

corkscrew – n. a tool for opening wine bottles

1 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

2 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

3 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

4 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

5 meteorite   

n.陨石；流星

参考例句：

• The meteorite in Jilin Exhibition Hall is believed to be the largest in the world.吉林展览馆的陨石被认为是世界上最大的。
• The famous Murchison meteorite smashed into the Australian ground in 1969.1969年著名的默奇森陨石轰然坠落在澳大利亚。

6 cultivation   

n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成

参考例句：

• The cultivation in good taste is our main objective.培养高雅情趣是我们的主要目标。
• The land is not fertile enough to repay cultivation.这块土地不够肥沃，不值得耕种。