A new wine
Interesting... From
The Times Online:
Premature ageing device that puts old wine in new bottles
FOR those who yearn for a well-aged, full-bodied vintage wine but lack the funds to feed the habit, the solution may lie with a Japanese boffin, a zany-looking contraption, a couple of metres of latex tubing and a few hundred volts of electricity.
Squirrelled away in his chemical engineering laboratory in rural Shizuoka, Hiroshi Tanaka has spent 15 years developing an electrolysis device that simulates, he claims, the effect of ageing in wines. In 15 seconds it can transform the cheapest, youngest plonks into fine old draughts as fruit flavours are enhanced and rough edges are mellowed, he says.
Reds can become more complex, and whites drier. A wine costing £5 a bottle could taste the same as one costing twice that, which "will create huge changes to the global wine industry".
It may sound far-fetched, but the ultra-competitive wine industry is taking no chances.Wineries in California, South America and other parts of the new and old wine worlds are taking a close interest in Mr Tanaka’s machine, and several are already testing it. The machine works by pumping wine and tap water through a specially designed electrolysis chamber equipped with wafer-thin platinum electrodes. The water and the wine are separated by an ion exchange membrane — the key component, for which Tanaka holds the patent.
Without diluting the wine, the electrolysis causes a rapid rearrangement of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms around the alcohol molecules, which would normally take place over years if the wine were ageing naturally.
Sommeliers at the boutique Engelhardt winery describe its effects as "interesting". A Chilean producer will arrive in Japan next week with 12 gallons of its finest red for further testing.
As the device approaches commercial readiness in January, the Robert Mondavi winery has asked to be kept updated on the results of trials. Because the electrolyser is capable of converting about four litres of wine a minute, some producers are considering ageing entire barrels before the wine is bottled.
I wonder if it offers the same flavor profile as a real "aged" wine or if it just knocks some of the rough edges off. You would have a market for three products now -- cheap rough stuff, electrolyzed and true aged.
There was a buzz about a year ago regarding taking a Brita charcoal water filter and running rot-gut cheap vodka through it. We had a party at our house and one of the guests brought two unlabeled bottles, one the filtered rot-gut and one top-shelf vodka.
About half of the guests could tell no difference. Jen and I have taken sensory analysis training and picked out the good stuff without hesitation but the differences were very subtle.
Posted by DaveH at October 13, 2005 12:45 AM