Who better to send to an event that discusses the processes of whisky maturation in micro-gravity than Thomas Fauchez. Thomas is a french PhD physicist working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He is a non-professional Scotch whisky fan since 2010 and a member of the “Clan des grands malt,” the second biggest whisky club in France with several hundreds people.
Tasting Notes for Ardbeg Perpetuum
Ardbeg Perpetuum 47.4 ABV
Color: Gold
Nose: A lot of citrus, caramel and salty butter. A bit of peat and herbs but very discrete for an Ardbeg. Few notes of red fruits are here thanks to the sherry cask finished.
Palate: Very peated by comparison to the nose, really liquid (not fatty). A lot of sweetness (sherry, strawberry, blueberry) at the beginning and then the peat comes
Final: Very long for this small alcohol level
Conclusions: That is a good surprise, this whisky has the character of a cask strength without a too high alcohol level. It is thus very easily drinkable and very high quality. (95/100)
It was very interesting to study the impact of gravity on the whisky aging. However, they only sent few samples to the space station with also some cask shavings.
However, as a member of the Ardbeg committee, I received a summary of the research conducted by email. I thought this was very interesting, so we are posting it below.
Some of the results are really quite interesting. They’ve shown that the flavor does change when whisky is aged in micro-gravity. For one thing, the exchanges between the spirit in the wood are different than they would be on earth!
