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Carbon-14 Dating Reveals 5% of Vintage Wines May Be Frauds

Posted by timothy on from the better-than-backdating-a-check dept.

Carbon dating isn't used only for such academic pursuits as trying to determine the age of the Shroud of Turin, or figure out how old some rocks are. An anonymous reader writes "Up to 5% of fine wines are not from the year the label indicates, according to Australian researchers who have carbon-dated some top dollar wines."

7 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. BS Article by rozthepimp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Certain vintages (same grapestock, same vineyard, same winemaster) vary in perceived taste and value from year to year, depending on weather, harvest time, sugar content, etc. 1999 may be great, 2000 shoddy. Is C-14 dating accurate to within one year? Hmm...

  2. Not much data by blamanj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That story doesn't leave much to go on, it's pretty low information content. However, it should be noted that a vintage wine can contain up to 15% of its grapes from another year. That would obviously skew any carbon dating results.

  3. Correction: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You think you can taste the difference.

    A lot of your enjoyment of "expensive goods" is psychological. So your "tasting a difference" may simply be a variation on wishful thinking. Have you tried a double-blind test?

    Of course, you may still say you "enjoy" expensive wines more if you're counting the whole experience (self-deception included) and that's your prerogative.

  4. Re:Let me take a pro-expensive wine position by frenchbedroom · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm French and I mostly agree about your quotes... under 3 €, it's everyday wine, good for cooking or drinking over everyday supermarket cheese. Above 3 € I can be confident that it'll be enjoyable, with a nice meal. But then up from 15€, I begin to wonder if it's really worth it, and that's where you really need to know something about it.

  5. Re:No One Would Notice by KiloByte · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Gold plated wine is absolutely exquisite

    No idea about wine, but here's vodka.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  6. Forgot a step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ...

    Dispose of the rest thoughtfully, while enjoying a beer. Aged for 1 hour to cool down.

    The difference between wine and beer is that nobody is going to suggest that the real way to enjoy a fine beer is to spit it out.

  7. Re:-1 wine snobs by purduephotog · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually, my wife and I make our own wine. We compare with other neighbors that do- and sometimes the 'vintages' are expressed in single digits- representing the number of WEEKS it's aged.

    (And not all homemade wine is crap. I follow the same processes the big wineries do- even down to a sub-micron filter for clarification and stabilization. I use the same chemicals, same oaks, etc. My wines tend to be very good)...