Shocking Developments

This time of year you'll see all sorts of gift guides, including wine gadget gift guides. Seems like there are a whole bunch of gadgets out these days that propose to make your wine taste like it has had years of aging, or to instantly decant the wine.

I apologize in advance for the fact that this little missive on my part is late in the gift purchasing cycle, but it was prompted by an email I received from Arthur of winesooth, pointing me to this article in the Telegraph (UK). The article describes a new system being developed in China which claims that, by applying electric fields, they can make a wine taste like it has been aged 20 years.

It's been eons since I took chemistry classes, but among the little I do recall is that chemical reactions either release energy or require energy to occur (exothermic and endothermic, right? I amaze myself sometimes...) Anyway, under normal cellar conditions (ie.e, not warm) it may be that there is a lower level of energy that allows some reactions to occur, while other do not have the energy available to occur. And it may very well be that those higher energy reactions are undesirable. (If you want proof, leave your age-worthy bottle out in the summer sun for a week. Ew.)

So, instead of excessive heat (which I think we can agree is bad) we have an electric field applied. This electricity may be less energetic than raw heat, we could suppose. Still, it is no less random and you could easily imagine good and bad reactions occurring. So, like every other "get aged quick" scheme I have ever seen, it is certainly true that good reactions can be happening. But do all of the good reactions that can happen with real aging occur? And what bad reactions also happen? Certainly the wine can taste different, sometimes maybe even better - but will it taste as good as it will 20 years from now? Hop in your time machine to find out - but I have my doubts...

I rather enjoy popping open a nice bottle and letting it open up and develop in my glass over the course of an evening. And I also enjoy pulling an older bottle out of my "cellar" to enjoy what it has become. It seems to me that expensive aerating gadgets and systems like this aren't at all necessary to enjoying a nice bottle wine. So next time you go shopping for a nice gift for your wine geek friends, give them wine instead. (Or how about a nice wine club membership?)

On the other hand, playing with high voltage is wicked cool!

(Remember to buy your raffle tickets for A Menu For Hope before December 24th!)

Comments

[Arthur, winesooth]

OOOOOh sweeet mystereeee of life, at last I've fooooound youuuuuu!

Tannin management and control is undeniably one of the holiest of holy grails of modern winemaking.

It's no wonder that people seek ways to alter tannin structure of wines.

Thanks for the linklove!

[Y A Li]

The referenced article included very little factural information other than a claim. It could just as well be a rumour. Nevertheless it is possible that an electric field may be able to create complex reactions that imitate ageing of wine. However claiming identical successful rate regardless of the grape runs against credibility.