Cream Sherry Was Almost NASA’s Choice for Moon Wine

Back in the days of the Cold War, building moon colonies was touted as the wave of the future. Though a pie in the sky, there was actually very little ability to provide pie…in the sky. Or wine for that matter. Space food was nearly inedible and the beverage options were just as bleak. However, Wine-Searcher reveals that NASA had planned to provide moonwalkers with an alcoholic option, namely sherry. In anticipation of the unsuccessful 1973 Skylab  satellite station launch,  NASA worked with UC Davis to decide which wine would work best in space and determined that Paul Masson California Rare Cream Sherry whose “fortification and oxidative maturation process…meant the wine remained relatively stable during repackaging and in zero gravity,” was the best candidate. Unfortunately, when tested in the Vomit Comet, NASA’s zero-gravity simulator (nicknamed for its effect upon test subjects), the competing aromas of sherry and the simulator’s crusty interior weren’t exactly compatible. [Wine-Searcher]