posted 07-07-2017 09:30 AM               

It was said that there was a crater named Saint Georges near the landing site and, of greater relevance, the crew partook of some wine produced in this region.

posted 07-07-2017 11:48 AM               

Do you know why St. George Crater has it's name? 'Cause one night we were discussing what we would find at that crater — anorthosite or whatever. And Jack [Schmitt] got in a heated discussion with somebody. I forget who it was, Lee Silver or (Gordon) Swann or somebody. But, you know, when Jack takes a position, he takes a pretty hard position.

And they got down to 'I'll bet you.' 'What do you want to bet?' 'I'll bet you a bottle of wine.' 'Okay, I'll bet you a bottle of wine, what kind of wine?' And somebody says, 'You know, one of Jules Verne's characters (Michel Ardan) took a particular bottle of wine called Nuits-Saint-Georges to the Moon. Therefore, why don't we name the crater St. George Crater, after Jules Verne. And that's why it's St. George."

"That's what brought geology to life. That's the kind of thing that made it fun, it made it real, and it tied it in with other things. It got into the emotion of the time, which was good because it was great to hear somebody like Schmitt debate with somebody else what was going to be there, because the rest of us learned a lot from that. You listen to a debate, you learn a lot, right? So those kinds of things were a very meaningful part of the methodology.

How did we learn how to be quasi-geologists on the Moon? Because of things like that. How could I ever forget that Schmitt had this argument about anorthosite at St. George? I can't forget that. So I get up around St. George, and there is a (mental) hook and, hanging on that hook, is a bottle of wine.

And, as a total sidelight, after the mission was over, I got a package from George Low. In the package was a cork, from a bottle of Nuits-Saint-Georges that he had on the night we landed on the Moon, and he'd signed it. Not bad, huh?"

In a 2001 e-mail message Dave Scott says that he and Jim and Al Worden made a visit in conjuction with their attendance at the 1971 Paris Air Show. Dave writes that Nuits-Saint-Georges is "a marvelous little town, with marvelous wine, marvelous food, and marvelous people!!!" He says that they were able to "enjoy the 'fruits' of our labor...(and were)...honored by being made citizens of Nuits. Just wish we could go back for another round!!!"

In 1972, the town of Nuits-Saint-Georges dedicated a special plaque, "place du cratère" (crater place) with astronaut Dave Scott.

posted 07-08-2017 01:48 PM               

In Chapitre III Où l'on s'installe of Jules Verne's 1870 sequel novel Autour de la Lune there is the key reference to a bottle of Nuits-Saint-Georges:

Enfin, pour couronner ce repas, Ardan dénicha une fine bouteille de Nuits, qui se trouvait « par hasard » dans le compartiment des provisions. Les trois amis la burent à l'union de la Terre et de son satellite.

Finally, to crown this meal, Ardan unearthed a fine bottle of Nuits-Saint-Georges, which was "by chance" in the compartment of provisions. The three friends drank it to the union of the Earth and its satellite.

Bottles of the special cuvée were presented to Dave Scott and the crew of Apollo 15 by Mayor Bernard Barbier in May 1971 with the intention that one might be brought to the moon! As a compromise, it would appear Dave intended to deposit a label from the Cuvée 69 Terre-Lune (and possibly earth from Texas) in the vicinity of the St. George crater in honor of Jules Verne and Nuits-Saint-Georges.

On 21 October 1973, Mayor Bernard Barbier held a reception at the Town Hall and John Irwin, the US Ambassador to France, inaugurated Place du Cratère-Saint-Georges in the town.