A new robotic wine taster has been invented by scientists. Designed for quality control in the field, the device is made up of six sensors which detect substances characteristic of a certain wine variety. Components such as acid, sugar and alcohol can be measured by this detection, and from these parameters it can determine the age and variety of the wine.
The tongue was invented by scientists at the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics, Spain, and is reported in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal The Analyst.
Wine industry specialists told the researchers they lacked a fast way to assess quality of wines – it takes a long time to send samples to a central laboratory for processing.
Cecilia Jiménez-Jorquera one of the inventors said: "This new tongue is not only swift, but also portable, cheap to manufacture, and can be trained to taste new varieties as required. The device could be used to detect frauds committed regarding the vintage year of the wine, or the grape varieties used."
Showing posts with label French wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label French wine. Show all posts
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Tragedy of wine producer
A wine producer was killed in a freak accident at his vineyard when he was crushed by hundreds of bottles.
George Musgrave, 66, who ran Polmassick Vineyard in St Ewe, Cornwall, with his wife Barbara, 62, was killed when half a tonne of empty bottles fell on the father of two.
He was airlifted to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske, but later died from his injuries.
Police are not treating his death as suspicious.
George Musgrave, 66, who ran Polmassick Vineyard in St Ewe, Cornwall, with his wife Barbara, 62, was killed when half a tonne of empty bottles fell on the father of two.
He was airlifted to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske, but later died from his injuries.
Police are not treating his death as suspicious.
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
China will be leading wine producer by 2058
China will come to the fore in the next half-century and emerge as the leading wine producing country. This is according to a new document out from Berry Bros & Rudd entitled 'The Future of Wine Report'.
Two significant areas are set for change in the next fifty years, it says. Firstly, the rise of wine brands will lead to massive changes in the marketing and packaging of wine products and secondly New World wine countries will see radical changes as climate change sets in.
China especially (curr
ently the world's sixth largest wine producer and number four in terms of area under vine) will come to prominence as the leading producer by 2058.
The report says Cabernets and Chardonnays, in particular, will be in demand.
Alun Griffiths MW said: "China has the vineyards, but not the technical expertise, however, if good people from wine producing countries think there is opportunity to make wine in China, they will go there and invest."
China will come to the fore in the next half-century and emerge as the leading wine producing country. This is according to a new document out from Berry Bros & Rudd entitled 'The Future of Wine Report'.
Two significant areas are set for change in the next fifty years, it says. Firstly, the rise of wine brands will lead to massive changes in the marketing and packaging of wine products and secondly New World wine countries will see radical changes as climate change sets in.
China especially (curr
ently the world's sixth largest wine producer and number four in terms of area under vine) will come to prominence as the leading producer by 2058.The report says Cabernets and Chardonnays, in particular, will be in demand.
Alun Griffiths MW said: "China has the vineyards, but not the technical expertise, however, if good people from wine producing countries think there is opportunity to make wine in China, they will go there and invest."
Friday, 9 May 2008
Saturday, 15 March 2008
Has the wine bubble finally burst?
For the last year at least the wine world has been rife with rumours of big price increases and the un sustainability of cheap wine.
Now with the huge 14p a bottle duty increase announced in the recent budget, the days of the ‘Bog off’ (buy one get one free) are definitely numbered.
Uk shoppers love a bargain but this ‘mind set’ has largely been indoctrinated by the supermarkets that much prefer to deal in high volume at the cheap and sometimes not so cheerful end of the market.
The storm clouds have been gathering for some time.
Drought, frosts and poor harvests in Australia is one factor.
Up until a few months ago a wine shortage in Oz was unthinkable. But so bad is it that even they have had to import wine to fill their wine boxes! Australia has traditionally supplied the UK with much of its bulk
Branded wines.
Cheap wine revolves around volume. Restrict that volume and producers can no longer afford to take a hit on the discounting demanded by the supermarkets. In reality the only people who have footed the bill for our cheap wine drinking habits is the producer, and the supermarkets have squeezed the life out of them!
There are also increased production costs, transport and the fact that for over a year now UK wine importers have been losing on average 10% against the Euro.
In the past the supermarkets have managed to sustain the £4.00 price slot by sourcing ever-cheaper sources of supply. Remember Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon? That was over twenty years ago. When that dried up they went to Chilli, Australia, Argentina. Where next?
The fact is to make cheap palatable wine from pretty poor grapes you need a lot of expertise, good infrastructure, good trade links and money to invest.
There are not to many wine producing countries left that you can trust to come up with the goods on a consistent enough basis.
So is the demise of cheap wine a bad thing? Well we think not.
If the average price of a bottle can nudge through the £5 barrier (it is currently £4) it may well encourage more people to ‘Trade up’ and throw off their ‘Price Shackles’ leaving them free to explore the wonders that await them in which quite frankly is another world!
Have you ever asked yourself ‘How much actual wine am I getting for my £4? After all you’ve paid £4 shouldn’t you get £4 worth of wine?
Sadly not.
The costs associated with making a bottle of wine can vary enormously, and have a profound effect on how the wine will behave once bottled and ultimately drunk.
Let's start by looking at the typical costs of a bottle of wine from Australia to see where the money is spent.
Retail Price
Retail Price £3.00 £5.00 £7.00 £12.00 £20.0 £25.00
Duty* + VAT £1.92 £2.35 £2.69 £3.57 £4.97 £5.85
Shipping Costs £0.20 £0.20 £0.20 £0.20 £0.20 £0.20
Retail mark-up £0.90 £1.50 £2.10 £3.60 £6.00 £7.50
Winemaking cost £0.04 £1.09 £2.15 £4.77 £8.97 £11.59
*Duty based on 2008 £1.47/bottle
You can see that for a £3 bottle of wine the winemaker has 0.04p to grow the grapes, make and bottle the wine. To produce wines on the scale required to be profitable requires a total focus on costs and producing large volumes of cheap grapes.
Your challenge here is to do the maths and try and work out the value of the wine left in the bottle after everyone has been paid. You may struggle?
It stands to reason that you really do get what you pay for and that it is an absolute certainty that the more you pay the better quality you get.
There is also the question of additives. If you find you are waking up with a nasty hangover after a glass or two of pub wine, or any cheap wine for that matter. You are probably justified in feeling unfairly treated. After all you were not drunk? Far from it. No, but you unwittingly drank a cocktail of chemicals and additives!
It stands to reason that if you start out with a poor quality base product. You are going to have to use short cuts and other tactics to cover up those short comings and turn your product into something saleable. Whether it be veneer on chipboard or additives in wine.
There are far less additives (if any) in good quality, relatively expensive wine because the producer doesn’t need to use them. Simple as that.
There is an old French saying in the vineyards
‘Great wine is the result of an exceptional climate and gifted people’
And it is rarely sold cheaply.
Now with the huge 14p a bottle duty increase announced in the recent budget, the days of the ‘Bog off’ (buy one get one free) are definitely numbered.
Uk shoppers love a bargain but this ‘mind set’ has largely been indoctrinated by the supermarkets that much prefer to deal in high volume at the cheap and sometimes not so cheerful end of the market.
The storm clouds have been gathering for some time.
Drought, frosts and poor harvests in Australia is one factor.
Up until a few months ago a wine shortage in Oz was unthinkable. But so bad is it that even they have had to import wine to fill their wine boxes! Australia has traditionally supplied the UK with much of its bulk
Branded wines.
Cheap wine revolves around volume. Restrict that volume and producers can no longer afford to take a hit on the discounting demanded by the supermarkets. In reality the only people who have footed the bill for our cheap wine drinking habits is the producer, and the supermarkets have squeezed the life out of them!
There are also increased production costs, transport and the fact that for over a year now UK wine importers have been losing on average 10% against the Euro.
In the past the supermarkets have managed to sustain the £4.00 price slot by sourcing ever-cheaper sources of supply. Remember Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon? That was over twenty years ago. When that dried up they went to Chilli, Australia, Argentina. Where next?
The fact is to make cheap palatable wine from pretty poor grapes you need a lot of expertise, good infrastructure, good trade links and money to invest.
There are not to many wine producing countries left that you can trust to come up with the goods on a consistent enough basis.
So is the demise of cheap wine a bad thing? Well we think not.
If the average price of a bottle can nudge through the £5 barrier (it is currently £4) it may well encourage more people to ‘Trade up’ and throw off their ‘Price Shackles’ leaving them free to explore the wonders that await them in which quite frankly is another world!
Have you ever asked yourself ‘How much actual wine am I getting for my £4? After all you’ve paid £4 shouldn’t you get £4 worth of wine?
Sadly not.
The costs associated with making a bottle of wine can vary enormously, and have a profound effect on how the wine will behave once bottled and ultimately drunk.
Let's start by looking at the typical costs of a bottle of wine from Australia to see where the money is spent.
Retail Price
Retail Price £3.00 £5.00 £7.00 £12.00 £20.0 £25.00
Duty* + VAT £1.92 £2.35 £2.69 £3.57 £4.97 £5.85
Shipping Costs £0.20 £0.20 £0.20 £0.20 £0.20 £0.20
Retail mark-up £0.90 £1.50 £2.10 £3.60 £6.00 £7.50
Winemaking cost £0.04 £1.09 £2.15 £4.77 £8.97 £11.59
*Duty based on 2008 £1.47/bottle
You can see that for a £3 bottle of wine the winemaker has 0.04p to grow the grapes, make and bottle the wine. To produce wines on the scale required to be profitable requires a total focus on costs and producing large volumes of cheap grapes.
Your challenge here is to do the maths and try and work out the value of the wine left in the bottle after everyone has been paid. You may struggle?
It stands to reason that you really do get what you pay for and that it is an absolute certainty that the more you pay the better quality you get.
There is also the question of additives. If you find you are waking up with a nasty hangover after a glass or two of pub wine, or any cheap wine for that matter. You are probably justified in feeling unfairly treated. After all you were not drunk? Far from it. No, but you unwittingly drank a cocktail of chemicals and additives!
It stands to reason that if you start out with a poor quality base product. You are going to have to use short cuts and other tactics to cover up those short comings and turn your product into something saleable. Whether it be veneer on chipboard or additives in wine.
There are far less additives (if any) in good quality, relatively expensive wine because the producer doesn’t need to use them. Simple as that.
There is an old French saying in the vineyards
‘Great wine is the result of an exceptional climate and gifted people’
And it is rarely sold cheaply.
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