Testing of wine electronically
By Maria Tillinghous
If you don't have an artists palate, fear not, technology introduces the e-tongue!
While such devices are still in their formative stages, researchers believe they will invent wine-tasting machines more objective than human wine tasters. The e-tongue contains a series of tiny synthetic membranes and is built onto a chip made of silicon. Distinct subtleties in the chemical composition should help each person to make distinction between different grapes and vintages due to individual sensitivity. Already the device can tell the difference between four distinct wines; Chardonnay, Macabeu, Airen, and Malvasia, and can also differentiate two different vintages of the same wine. The year of 2005 and 2004.. It is the hope of researchers that by allowing the electronic tongue to recognize a wider range of chemical components it will be able to distinguish altered quality of wine or instances of fraud.
The device can tell the difference between sweet, salty, bitter, acidic and umami tastes and functions like the human tongue. tasty. Nine samples from 2005 vintage and six samples from 2004 were used by scientists to test the device. Seven months later, the Analyst (journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry) repeated the test of wines made from grapes from the two vintages and four varieties. The device is easy to use and it can also be made portable, so it can be carried to site to test the wine samples. The device is comparatively cheap, fast and is simple to use.
Scientists are inventing new methods, such as mechanical "tongues" and "noses", to effectively differentiate between molecules as a way to make the win tasting industry more objective. The wine industry is making good use of the technology, but it is also a help in detecting explosives and helping with security.
As the newly rich are willing to spend quite a bit of money for high end wines such as Petrus, Le Pin and Lafite, wine counterfeiting has grown into a big business. It is easy to make a fake label that is not easy to notice. The fine-wine industry is handling these counterfeit wines by using special ways including inks, bottles, holograms and bar codes to protect defrauding themselves and the customers.
The Australian wine company, hardy, uses genetic vine material in neck seals to keep track of its more precious bottlings while the temperature-tracking tags are a recent innovation. The e-tongue's ability to sift grape types by location does not guarantee its ability to hardwire the more minute details of Chateau Lafite or Mouton-Rothschild. And would you really want to spend a lot on an exquisite wine to have it consumed by a robot?
About the author
The author is interested in wine technology and south african white wine. from http://www.FreeArticlesAndContent.com
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