Fast Track to Fine Wine?

wombatmobile writes "Hiroshi Tanaka, president of Innovative Design and Technology, claims to have perfected a machine that can transform a bottle of just-fermented Beaujolais Nouveau into a fine, mellow wine in seconds. From the article: 'The road, however, won't be an easy one: the company has brought the machine around to Japanese wine producers, restaurants and even sake rice wine and "shochu" sweet potato spirit distillers, but so far only a small shochu maker in southern Japan has agreed to get involved.'

Comments

no more Barrels

[TubeSteak]

heh, I just RTFA and this part made me laugh

"Think of the savings we'll make. Shorter production time, no need for storage, no need to invest in barrels," he said.

Recently, in England, they cut down a 340 yr old oak tree to make wine barrels.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2000 913,00.html

Part of the cachet of drinking fine wines is that it is expensive and exclusive. Once you start allowing the hoi polloi to have access, it no longer becomes so special.

To make an example you'll all understand, think G-Mail invites. Specifically, when they first started getting passed around.