THE “PUZZLE WINE”? NEW AND SOPHISTICATED TECHNOLOGIES MAY SOON PERMIT THE PIECE BY PIECE CREATION OF WINES IN LABORATORIES, MANIPULATED TO MEET MARKET DEMANDS

Adapting wine to satisfy market demands? The idea at first may seem to be little more than a fantasy but may actually soon become reality. At least this is what appears to be the latest indication from the frontiers of the scientific innovations in the world of winemaking, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon schools by the likes of Dr. Ulrich Fischer, a member of the group of wine technologies experts in the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (Oiv), and the head of the viticulture and enology department research center Dlr Rheinpflaz in Germany.
Abandoning the “aggressive” chemical interventions during production phases, the new technologies base their efficiency, above all, on principals of physics and the modification of the fundamental elements of wine. They are the new generation of technologies like inverse osmosis, electro dialysis, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, that have until now served only to stabilize wines, to “eliminate” or “adjust” its elements (like excessive acidity, volatile phenols - the substances that cause odors - high Ph levels, etc.).
And in reality these technologies actually contain in their “Dna”, so to speak, a much more consistent potential that is capable of the total fragmentation of the substances that undergo these treatments. One example, is the de-alcoholization of wine that has been obtained with vacuum distillation (in use in Australia since 1985), and which produces as a “side-effect” the extraction of volatile aromatic substances. These substances are then subsequently added to the original wine that has a reduced alcohol content. The complete breaking down of the elements of wine is closer than we think, and in Australia, possibly today’s true wine homeland, it appears that enological research is headed primarily in this direction.
Countercurrent chromatography, for example, is the technique used in laboratories to analyze in detail the components of a composition, and could be used to further study the make up of wine and allow for its “piece by piece” elaboration. If the future is truly represented by these fragmentation techniques, it will become continually more difficult to consider such technologies as a simple progress in classic winemaking techniques. And we may have to accept that we are dealing with a truly new concept in winemaking according to which wine is simply another product that can be manipulated for market demands.