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Wine Tasting Via Computer

Posted by Zonk on from the snoots-replaced-by-technology dept.

smooth wombat writes "What makes a good wine? Why do some wines have a smooth, almond-like bouquet while others have a sharper, more acidic bite to them? These questions and more have usually been answered by oenologists who can list the subtle nuances of a particular wine and tell you if it's good or not. However, vinters don't have the luxury of waiting until a wine is ready to be drunk to know if they have produced a good, drinkable product. Lorenz "Larry" Biegler, who teaches chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, in conjunction with industry scientists in Chile, is working on mathematical formulas to automate the fermentation process, adjusting ingredients and conditions to ensure robust flavors and higher yields from grape harvests. The researchers have been collaborating for more than two years and are studying only white wines, since reds are more complex and contain solids that make them difficult to analyze."

12 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Seeing if the wine is "Ready"? by Ruff_ilb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wine tasting, as I'm sure most experts will agree, is as much of an art as anything; I doubt that people will allow a computer to tell them if a wine is "good" or not, even if it's right most of the time.

    OTOH, if the computer only tells people if the wine is drinkable, or ready to be tasted, that's a different story. As long as the computer doesn't try to encroach on the "art" side of wine tasting and stays firmly on the "science" side, I think that it could be quite a useful invention - although to a tiny demographic.

    --
    http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
    1. Re:Seeing if the wine is "Ready"? by shawb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Or if the computer could tell the vintner subtle variations in temperature or other factors during the fermentation process which would help improve the wine. Maybe evnetually the computer could help determine which woods would be the best for storing a certain batch. Computers wouldn't really be able to help a bad winemaker make good wine, but they could help a good winemaker make better wine.

      --
      I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
    2. Re:Seeing if the wine is "Ready"? by Ruff_ilb · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Another issue with their formula: It implies that "If we add more X to mixture Y, it'll taste better."

      When wine tasting, again, is such a subjective thing, even given the fact that they may be able to figure out what gives the wine more of a fruiter aftertaste, for example, they still don't know if they actually WANT a fruiter aftertaste.

      Again, if we get the experts deciding what would make the wine taste "better" and then working with the machine to decide what can be done to make the wine taste the way the experts want, we're still only doing something that can probably be done already (IANAWineGeek, BTW) without the aid of an expensive machine. And one expert's "better" might be another expert's "ruined"

      --
      http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
    3. Re:Seeing if the wine is "Ready"? by blakestah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The company Enologix already uses a "formula" based on chemical composition to predict wine rating scores. It translates all of that winemaking into one number...one number that matters a lot.

      They contract clients who test wine at different times. It tells them how long to ferment, when to stop, if the batch will ferment faster or slower than usual, etc. And of course, in France, how much ethylene glycol to add at the end. They average a 5-6 rating point increase in the first year their clients use them.

      To take it even further, I'll use a coffee example. Illy did a LOT of scientific taste testing studies on its coffee (or in the US, espresso). They found the magical chemical formula. Then, they would test each batch, alter the chemical content to become perfect, and sell it.

      The Italians were OUTRAGED! It was as bad as cigarette makers adding nicotine to cigarettes!

      So what did Illy do? They stopped that process. Now, they draw several batches in parallel. Test all of them. And figure out how to combine them to achieve the magical formula. The end result is chemically the same, but the Italians are happy to know that Illy comes from 100% roasted Arabica beans from Brasil.

      Of course winemakers already try to do this with blended wines. But it would be pretty easy if each wine were independently chemically tested, and then the appropriate convex combination were defined to result in a 90+ Wine Spectator rating. And I'm sure many of them do this already.

  2. My pedantic moment for the day... by KingSkippus · · Score: 4, Funny
    However, vinters don't have the luxury of waiting until a wine is ready to be drunk...

    For the record, the word is vintner, not vinter.

    In Soviet Russia, vinters are wery, wery cold.

    1. Re:My pedantic moment for the day... by B3ryllium · · Score: 5, Funny

      In Soviet Russia, vinters are wery, wery cold.

      Not vhen you drink wodka on a nuclear wessel.

  3. Stop it right now! by rufusdufus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    some wines have a smooth, almond-like bouquet

    No they dont. Nor do they taste like chocolate, raspberries or broccoli.
    Really wine has 5 basic flavorings: 1) rotten grape 2) alcohol 3) wooden barrel 4) cork 5) mold

  4. Re:Ouch by Kelz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not undrinkable, but creating a GOOD wine basically an art. You can't replace a Van Gogh with electronics. I CAN however see this being used to make low-quality cheap wines more consistant and a bit better while still keeping costs down.

  5. Funny, I'm running an experiment right now. by purduephotog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just finished fermenting 15 gallons of Chardonnay in glass. I'm about to rack it again to clear it and start the 'experimentation' phase- precisely how much oak is needed to make this a good wine.

    The oak selection seems to be pretty dominated by Nevers, but I wish I could find out how to buy some. There's a paper out at
    http://www.wynboer.co.za/recentarticles/0400wood.p hp3 that is rather interesting- but all in good time.

    Right now, for me personally (and I'm about to start 15 more gallons of Chardonnay and 5 gallons of Pinot Grigio) I'm going for a very light oak flavour for 5 gallons- destined for Champagne- and a heavier oak that'll sit in the bottles to be served at house dinners.

    All in all- I'll take ANY computer modeling that can help me predict what my quality will be... I just doubt it'll work unless I start investing in alot more equipment ;)

  6. Homogenous Wine by eander315 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This sounds like a great way to make every bottle taste the same, from vintage to vintage and vintner to vintner. Part of the fun of drinking wine is selecting a bottle that you like from the thousands available, not to mention tasting how your favorite wine changes from year to year as the growing conditions change.

    This might work well for jug wines that no one really drinks for the taste in the first place, but even cheap table wine has subtle (or not-so-subtle) nuances that might be erased by this process.

  7. But... by BluhDeBluh · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wine Is Not Ethanol... Oh comeon. Someone had to do it.

  8. W.I.N.E. by Andrewkov · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wine Is Not an Emultar .. oh, wait a sec...