Aging wines with electric fields instead of cellars
One of the challenges that wine lovers face is cellaring their wine. Many wines that are worth collecting are also worth cellaring. Some wines require only a couple of years to reach their full potential. Other wines, like Barolo may require a decade or two of aging to reach their peak. If you do not have a cellar or a couple of decades to wait what are you supposed to do?
Well, The New Scientist is reporting that Chinese researchers have discovered a way to age wine without all the cellaring and waiting. Xin An Zeng, a chemist at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, has developed a device that uses electric fields to accelerate the reactions that would normally happen slowly as a wine ages.
The electric field increases the reaction rates between alcohol and the organic acids in the wine to form esters. These esters make up many of the aromas we associate with wine. The reactions also soften the wine on the palate. Speeding up these reactions offers winemakers a short cut to barrel or bottle aging their wine before distribution, reducing costs. Micro-oxygenation is already used for this purpose, but the Zeng approach appears to be even faster.
Speeding wine to market is not the only use of this technology. According to Hervé Alexandre, a professor of oenology at the University of Burgundy, the technology can also be used to hasten the development of age-worthy wines, reducing cellar time.
Does this mean that age of cellaring wines is over? I doubt it. Many wine drinkers are firmly entrenched in tradition and would not accept artificially aged wine no matter how good. However, the technology is going to continue to influence the way wine is made, stored, and enjoyed. One day, wine drinkers may have to choose between decanting or giving their wine a couple of minutes between the ol’ electrodes.
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