Wine Enthusiast Magazine
SubscribeI’ve long harbored the fantasy, nightmare really, that a computerized wine tasting device would be created that could chemically analyze wine for aroma, flavor and finish as well as, and probably better than, any wine writer or master sommelier.
Never got to use the idea in a magazine article, but that’s the beauty of a blog. You can make it up if you want to. I pictured the illustration that would go with it. Kind of a 1960s style computer, with a large aluminum funnel poking out the top, great wheels of tape spinning on the front, and a long ribbon of yellow paper punched with the results streaming from a slot in one side.
Just pour the wine in the funnel, and out would come a perfect tasting note with drink window and food affinities included.
It turns out I’d had the idea backward.
Yesterday a colleague passed along to me a video of an even more amazing computer wine device. This one threatens to shake up the French wine industry, and perhaps all of winedeom.
You have to watch the video, which is easily worth a thousand words.
Come to think of it, this handy computer accessory may already be in use by Leo McCloskey’s Enologix lab in California, the company that advises a number of top-rated wineries on how to create wines that will please the gate keepers.
Maybe Enologix’s computers are not merely advising on how to make 95-point Oak Knoll Cabernet, maybe the computers have taken over the process and dispense the final product.
Filed under: Critics/Competitions, Winemaking
7 Comments
December 11th, 2007 at 11:05:23 PM
Jim:
As always, you are very entertaining and the video is a blast. We can kid around but I am sure sooner or later some computerizes version of a taster will show up.
In a couple of entries on my blog with links to archived pages below, I did a tongue in cheek bit about tasting robots. Have a wonderful Christmas season.
August 10, 2006 ” Wine Critics and Writers:
http://wwpress.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html
Sept. 9/06 The Future is almost here..
http://wwpress.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html
December 12th, 2007 at 12:28:11 PM
Amazing device! Can I order one before the holidays?
December 12th, 2007 at 12:46:24 PM
Jim:
Would this not be just one more individual interpretation, regardless. Since tasting is so subjective. I have observed thousands of tasters and it remains a amazing thing. The less experienced often do not like the absolutely fabulous wines. They are pleased with the mediocre. This happened to me as recently as Monday, my response is ok lets go after the wine you want to drink, I adapt and they are happy…
December 12th, 2007 at 3:35:35 PM
<p>Wilf: Great blogs run in the same channels? You know, re: computers that analyze wine, something similar is actually being tested in vineyards now. Viticulturists are calibrating a few different models of electronic noses, or Enoses, as they’re called, for use in vineyards to determine when the grapes are optimal for harvesting. Good article here on the subject.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:27:13 PM
I wonder if this is making fun of the Ch. Pontet Canet USB device? They sent out a big press release a while back for their wine-bottle shaped device with vineyard tours, Michel Rolland interviews and such…of course, the gadget shown in this video is WAY better! Here’s a link to the article about and ad for the Pontet Canet thingy: http://domaine547.com/2007/09/23/chateau-pontet-canet-embraces-technology-and-wine-20/
December 12th, 2007 at 10:29:35 PM
and by “this video” I meant the one you posted, Jim…I just realized that my wording was unclear.
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:19:43 PM
Jim: There is a huge opportunity for a peripheral product here: Combine the USB Wine with the Beer Hat using a laptop computer and tap into that limitless market of NFL fans!!!!