A technology that will put an end to every winemaker’s clamour over a tedious, expensive, and time-consuming wine testing process will be released soon.
Professor Dennis Taylor of the School of Agriculture, Food & Wine and Professor Tanya Monro of the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing are currently working on the prototype of the technology. Called a ‘Smart Bung’, the technology uses optical fibers to test and monitor various quality parameters of wine while still in the barrel.
Professor Taylor said wine production normally undergoes a series of tests to ensure its quality. “The wine testing, however, is a tedious, expensive, and time-consuming process”. With Smart Bung, winemakers need not undergo such an arduous routine. They can do the test conveniently from afar, without opening the barrel or interfering with the wine inside the barrel. “The light of specific wavelengths transmitted by the optical fibers in the Smart Bung interact with the wine and analyze its chemical composition. The results are then relayed to the computer and could act as an early warning system to spoilage,” Professor Taylor explained.
Funded by the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation (GWRDC), this research aims to prove the concept of using optical fibers in wine testing.
Written by Ronan Zagado
