Make Your Cheapest Wines Age Faster

I am sure that everyone's to-do list this year contains festivities and get-togethers galore; when attending these events, the last thing you want to do is show up with that cheap bottle of wine you bought right before the party because you forgot and it was the last of what the store possessed. Lucky for you, new research suggests that leaving your wine in an electric field may be the key to making your wine age like it was stored in a wooden barrel in your cellar for years. Normally, the reactions necessary to mature the wine would take years and a small constant supply of oxygen. In light of this new research, winemakers will be vying for any contraption that will make wine maturing go faster to cut the cost of storage. This will also help to meet the demands of the public.

Experienced wine testers were asked to test wines that were exposed to 1, 3, or 8 minutes of an electric field. The peak of improvements in the wine occurred after 3 minutes at 600 volts per centimeter. The improvements noted were the taste balance and maturity. Nasty odors and the burning mouth feeling were decreased with this method of aging, while the aroma and the hint of fruitiness in the wine were increased. But it was discovered that too much voltage had a worse effect on the taste than no voltage at all.

It isn't entirely clear how this method ages the wine. The favorable aspects of this technology are clear; the breakdown of proteins produces amino acids that contribute to taste. There was a noticeable drop in aldehydes, which accounts for the "off" flavors.

Before you go running off to buy as much cheap wine as you can get your hands on, this technology hasn't been implemented for home use. Unfortunately, this methodology is currently only being trial-tested in five Chinese wineries. So until this technology is available in stores near you, prevent bringing cheap wine by always having a bottle of aged wine handy.

Editors Note: Thanks to Duckinthepond for bringing this article to my immediate attention.

Resources:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026873.500-how-to-make-cheap-wine-taste-like-a-fine-vintage.html?full=true