A time machine for wine?
Hiroshi Tanaka wants to turn young, freshly-bottled wine into a well-cellared library wine in minutes. Correction: seconds.
Tanaka claims to have perfected a machine that can transform a bottle of just-fermented Beaujolais Nouveau into a fine, mellow wine in seconds, all by zapping it with a few volts of electricity.
How does it work?
Though the exact mechanism of water molecule clusters remain a matter of scientific debate, Tanaka claims the electrolysis treatment instantaneously breaks up water clusters in the wine, allowing the water to more thoroughly blend with the alcohol. His company’s machine is a two-chambered device roughly the size of a stereo. Wine passes through one and tap water passes through the other; a membrane the company has patented separates the two. Platinum electrodes provide the juice, driving negative ions — the cause of acidity — from the wine into the water.
Perhaps ironically, you’ll have to be patient if you want your flash-aged wine:
The company is in talks with wineries in California and Washington state to start providing its U.S. affiliate, BW2 Holdings, with young wine to treat and sell, Tanaka said. BW2 hopes to sell the bottles on the Internet later this year for an affordable US$5 (euro4.14).
Now if only they’ll come up with a way to turn back time on wine that’s past its prime…
tags: wine | food and drink | wine and technology
On January 23rd, 2006 at 9:27 pm ,Brogie62 wrote:
What a scam. I am a chemist. Water and alcohol are so mutually soluble that they diffuse into each other in seconds. Water does not cluster aprt from alcohol.
On January 23rd, 2006 at 10:07 pm ,FreeWine wrote:
How about magnets? 😉
http://www.shooterbuddy.com/
On January 24th, 2006 at 1:47 pm ,Anonymous wrote:
how come when you mix an alcoholic beverage, the alcohol tends to drift to the bottom of the glass?