Electronic wine-tasting tongue tests grape variety and vintage

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Wine tasting goes electronic

August 6, 2008 Could this new electronic wine-tasting tongue challenge the finest wine tasters in the world? Invented by European scientists, this handheld device has a multi-sensor chip which senses distinctive characteristics of wine varieties. By analyzing the sugar content, acidity and alcohol, the machine can also determine the year and grape variety of the sample and instead of waiting days for laboratories to analyze wine samples, wine industry specialists will be able to get a sample result at the touch of a button.

Invented by Cecilia Jiménez-Jorquera and colleagues from the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics, Spain, this handheld device has a multi-sensor chip which senses distinctive characteristics of wine varieties.

“the device could be used to detect frauds committed regarding the vintage year of the wine, or the grape varieties used,” according to Jiménez-Jorquera. The wine-tasting tongue is portable, cheap to manufacture, is capable of being programmed to test for other parameters and can be trained to test new varietals.

Via The Analyst.