A couple of days ago I wrote about a forthcoming book by Malcolm Gluck on the wiles and machinations of the wine industry. Well, it seems a new device may cause even more headaches for the high priests of the wine cult.
A device that claims to turn cheap supermarket plonk into vintage wine and banish hangovers is set to hit the high street.
Inventors say a bottle of any bargain booze can be transformed in just 30 minutes, using space-age ultrasound technology.
The £350 gadget - which looks like an ordinary ice bucket - recreates the effects of decades of aging by colliding alcohol molecules inside the bottle.
Dragons Den veteran, entrepreneur and inventor Casey Jones, 53, is the man behind the machine, which is yet to be given a retail name.
He said: 'This machine can take your run-of-the-mill £3.99 bottle of plonk and turn it into a finest bottle of vintage, tasting like it's hundreds.
'It works on any alcohol that tastes better aged. Even a bottle of paint-stripper whisky can taste like an 8-year-aged single malt.'
Mr Jones is now in talks with leisure chain Hotel Du Vin about marketing the working-titled 'Ultrasonic Wine Ager'.
He said: 'I see thousands of inventions every year and there are a lot of crazy ones, but in every tonne of coal there is a diamond.
'Of all the inventions I deal with, this one has amazed me the most in the effects it has on alcohol.
'The look and bouquet of the drink is improved and because of the chemical changes, the alcohol is easier to absorb by the kidneys and therefore, hangovers are virtually eliminated.
'I have even tried it with orange juice after I saw a similar device being used in the US. It didn't just make the juice taste fresher, it made it look brighter too.'
Winemaker Andre Jones produces 40,000 bottles a year, at his family-owned Buzzard Valley Vineyard, near Tamworth, Staffs.
He said: 'Casey took one of our bottles and brought it back for us to try after it had been in the machine.
'I was amazed, it had definitely aged. Obviously it can't change the grape variety used, but it does mean a relatively poor variety can be made to taste a lot higher market.
'I would like to see it used on some of the Mediterranean varieties like a Rioja or a Chiraz.
'This could definitely have some applications for those restaurants who are buying wine for £10,000 a case.
'Technically I suppose you could buy a good wine at two or three years old and age it so it tastes like a 20-year-old vintage.
'Wine is at it's best five or so years after it's made, so this could help home brewers taste aged wine more easily.
'And the bankers paying £1,000 a bottle could be drinking wine only a few years old rather than 20.
'Of course you would have to tell them it's not quite the real thing.'
Sounds like a great idea! I'll buy one myself if it makes it to market. The thought of serving a palatable plonk to certain wine-snob guests, then informing them that it's Chateau Cardboard put through a wine-aging machine, is too good to resist!
Peter
4 comments:
Riiiight. There are any number of devices on the market that claim to do such a thing. They're all hoaxes.
Has anyone explained why ultrasonic vibrations improve flavor? They make the alcohol molecules collide? Is that really what's happening when booze ages--the alcohol molecules are are just bumping into each other? Why does bumping alcohol molecules into each other make wine taste better?
And why is it that this machine makes wine and whiskey taste "aged" but it makes orange juice taste "fresher"? I'm calling BS on this one. It's been proven conclusively over and over that the most renowned wine tasters in the world can be fooled by these kinds of gadgets--simple confirmation bias, combined with an inflated sense of the sensitivity of their palates, does the trick.
If you want your guests to notice a difference, don't try to surprise them. Show them the gadget, demonstrate its use, and THEN let them taste the results. They'll taste the improvement whether it's there or not.
Does that mean that my cheap scotch is not going to taste like Johnny Walker?
I betcha what it's doing is breaking up protein strings. Physical change, not chemical.
Shortbus: It depends on how much of it you drink. I find the third drink tastes the same no matter what you bought.
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