Using Technology to Produce a Better Vintage?

Thomas Jefferson once said, "Good wine is a necessity of life for me." And researchers at Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago, Chile, are attempting to make it easier for vintners to produce that "good" wine.

The team of researchers, along with Lorenz Biegler, Bayer professor of chemical

engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, is working to produce computer models to identify the traits (e.g., the fragrances and flavors) of good wines, as reported by the Associated Press on CNN.com. These models are based on data that the researchers have collected about the chemical make-ups of existing wines.

Because scientists don't completely understand the compounds that emerge when yeast converts sugar to alcohol, Biegler is working on mathematical processes to automate fermentation. "We're not saying we want to make this perfect. We just want to get the physics down well enough to influence what people would appreciate," said Biegler. "We are trying to make the average bottle of wine better and understand what makes a really great bottle of wine really great." As a result, winemaking could become more efficient, more consistent, and-to the joy of vintners worldwide-more profitable.

Although many winemakers see their craft as an art and often avoid using technology to aid the process, Biegler predicts that within 5 or 10 years more wineries will be turning to technology for help in engineering wines.

Source: CNN (http://www.cnn.com)