Project description:

Investigating and debunking the various ways to artificially age wine. Currently there is a wide range of misinformation regarding methods to artificially age wine. Myself and my workmates aim to separate fact from fiction and to provide a detailed report regarding which methods result in the greatest changes and which if any had no effect at all.

We shall be aiming to test the following methods of artificially aging wine:

Application of an electric field:

Typically a young red wine will need at least 6 months of maturing time before it is drinkable, through the use of electric fields it has been shown that this time can be greatly reduced.

By flowing our wine through a pulsed high electric field between two titanium electrodes for varied time-points we aim to set off a series of chemical reactions that will leave the wine less bitter, acidic and with greater clarity.

We shall be doing trials with a 200L batch of 2 month old Red Merlot and a 200L batch of 1 year old Red Merlot.

Aging on oak which has been toasted and burnt to various levels and is of various sizes

By soaking wine on oak chips toasted to various degrees we are able to speed up the aging process and the production of tannins, this is due to the increase in surface area of the wood and the greater permeability of the oak chips.

For this trial we shall be using a 200L batch of 1 year old Red Merlot.

Influence of levels of GHB

Levels of GHB in a variety of store bought Red Merlot wines and levels found in our barrels shall be tested to see how levels vary and to hypothesis what effect if any these would have on subjects.

Use of Gadgets such as the 'Wine Wand' or "Clef du Vin" in the aging of wine

In this section we shall try various gadgets to see their effect on the aging of wine. Ultrasound did originally have its own section but as we have not discovered any evidence or prior trials for the effectiveness of this method we have moved it to gadgets.

Wine Wand:

The Wine Wand is a rather comical looking quartz rod with a ball on the top which supposedly improves the taste and smell of the wine through "Natural frequencies".

Clef du Vin:

The Clef du Vin is a teardrop shaped piece of metal that supposedly when dipped into wine replicates the aging process.

Ultrasound:

This one is more of a myth but we thought it would be interesting to try mainly because we already have a large ultrasound cleaner. Basically the myth is that the ultrasound will bounce the alcohol around magically making the wine taste better.

For the Gadgets section we shall be testing their effect on the store bought wine and small amounts from our barrels.

Other Information:

All samples shall be analysed before and after to determine the levels of higher alcohols, aldehydes, esters, amino acids and of course polyphenols and astringency.

All wine used in these trials shall be from 200L barrels of Red Merlot wine with the exception of the wine used for the GHB trials.

All wines will have samples taken from them prior to testing to ensure consistency.

What your funding will be used for:

1 200L 2 month old Red Merlot Wine Barrel

1 200L 1 year old Red Merlot Wine Barrel

10 Red wines of differing ages

Wine Wand

Clef Du Vin

2 Titanium electrodes

If there is extra funding over 100% we shall be doing a study on the artificial aging of single malt whisky from the nant distillery in Tasmania.

#SciFund

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