Quest for perfecting wine, with the help of computers

Quest for perfecting wine, with the help of computers

One can call it the quest for joie de verve and computers are assisting humans in this quest. As long as humans have enjoyed wine, they have worked towards making it taste and smell better. The usual methods have mostly been trial and error right from the time of grape selection through to the consideration of the terroir and the moment for picking up the fruit.

However this process in itself was full of flaws. Now scientists from Pittsburgh are using computer modelling for improving the most basic aspect of making wine: fermentation. "We are asking what kind of performance we can get out of this," Carnegie Mellon University's Lorenz Biegler said. "We would like to come up with a reasonably good model of how this yeast cell behaves, then control this fermentation process so we can make better-quality wines."

Mr Biegler and his colleague scientists from Chile have been working tirelessly to find out how computer modeling and its development can alter the final product that comes out. The main problem in their hand is of the stuck batches i.e. the time when fermentation has stalled and a lot of residual sugar is left behind in the wine out of the process.

At the Pontifical Catholic University of Santiago, Chili, most of the work is being conducted on an 'aroma lab' where these researchers, which have been sponsored by the wine industry, are attempting to isolate the chemicals which produce desirable smells and tastes.

The ideas is to bring consistency into the process of wine making while making the process more efficient, and at the same time, profitable, Mr. Biegler quotes. Though such computerized systems have long been used in other industries like chemical plants, oil refineries, pharmaceutical manufacturing factories etc., it is the first time that their use is being tested out in a winery.
One only wishes the researchers all the best so that better quality wines can be produced at cheaper rate. That sure would be joie de verve for the masses.