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Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2006 > August > 07 > Entry
Blue smoke, Ouija boards and wine magnets
Give me some help on this.
I am intrigued but skeptical of these new devices that are touted as changing the taste of wine — the most recent example laid out in this Associated Press story by Michelle Locke, and others referenced in this Wine Sediments entry by my blogging colleague Jeff at Good Grape.
The Bev Wizard profiled in the AP story is purported to use magnets to make tannic, astringent wines softer and fruitier. Its maker — a physician by training who also has passed a Master of Wine exam — claims his device “works by creating a magnetic field that changes the shape of a wine’s tannins, making them larger and softer,” according to the AP story. The Bev Wizard can provide a shortcut to hours of decanting, its maker says.
Bunk, says one Cleveland State University chemistry professor, who sums up his opinion of the device with, “All that magnetic field is doing is separating you from your money.”
About a year ago, Arrow’s south store was selling a device that was touted to do roughly the same thing as the Bev Wizard, though at a higher cost, I seem to recall. It involved dropping a metallic key of sorts into the wine for a brief time, which softened it. Arrow’s Denny Freyvogel demonstrated it for me, and it did seem to change the wine somewhat — but I wasn’t sure the end result was an improvement. And I recognize that the power of suggestion in these types of demonstrations is very strong. Our Cleveland State prof dismisses such anecdotal evidence: “”Testimonials are irrelevant. Tastings are not proof.”
Has anyone tried any of these products? What did you think?
And what do you think would happen if we subjected these devices to a full, rigorous, double-blind test?
And perhaps the most perplexing question of all: With the current “international-style” selection of wines from around the world, why the heck would I want to make my wines softer and fruitier anyway? But I suppose that’s another debate …
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
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Comments
By felipeta
August 16, 2006 12:12 AM | Link to this
I think this gizmo is well-intended and from the basic physico-chemical processes it does make sense. The great Bordeaux cost a lot and last forever. But I won’t live forever, and I’m not a millionaire. Then I suppose an improvement in immediate affordable (but honest!) wines is quite welcome !!
By Patrick Farrell, MW
August 10, 2006 6:10 PM | Link to this
It seems as if mis-information flows. I am one of the inventors of the BevWizard, a device proven to work and documented in articles in the LA Times and Associated Press, as well as on the Graperadio.com and Grapenutz.com websites. I too was skeptical when approached with the concept though was curious enough to try some magnets on a bottle of wine. For those with a modicum of wine knowledge (and this excludes the chemistry instructor whose field is neither wine chemistry nor tannin chemistry)egg white fining, an essential procedure in many wineries, is based upon negatively charged tannins binding to positively charged proteins. That tannins polymerize in the bottle to soften a wine is well accepted. That oxygen, via decanting can accelerate this process is also accepted. Why is it so difficult to accept that a strong magnetic field in the presence of oxygen may also accelerate this process whereby negatively charged tannins polymerize? We are currently running studies at UCLA to document these changes. By the way, one of the responders referred to the Clef du Vin, a non-magnetic product, though with copper to stimulate oxidative reactions. It is not a magnetic device, contrary to the writer’s assertion. Let’s keep in mind that we’re not talking rocket science here. Many winemakers have embraced our product and are increasingly selling it in their tasting rooms. We are simply offering the consumer a way to better enjoy oaked, tannic wines in their youth. By the way, the spirits pourer even works better, markedly decreasing the bite of wooded spirits. Cheers and keep an open mind.
By Scott
August 10, 2006 1:51 PM | Link to this
James Randi has declared that anyone who can demonstrate, in a double-blind test, the ability to distinguish between wines treated and untreated by the BevWizard (and similar devices) is eligible to win the one-million-dollar prize the JREF offers for any successful demonstration of supernatural phenomena. See his commentary from a couple of months ago: http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-06/060906just.html#i4
By John
August 7, 2006 6:56 PM | Link to this
Check out Vivi’s Wine Journal: http://www.vivisjournal.com/viviswinenotes/
By Magneto
August 7, 2006 12:04 PM | Link to this
I promise you, you can drop ANY key off of your key chain into your next glass of wine, and it will “change the wine somewhat” — but not necessarily with an “end result of improvement”… Let’s face it—-if any of this magnet stuff really worked, the food in my refrigerator would never go bad…
By Linda
August 7, 2006 11:39 AM | Link to this
Wow - Magnets in wine. Is that sort of on the same idea as the magents for helping arthritis and pain. Now we will have a Pyramid business of wine magnets?? Maybe it is the rust from the metal that really changes the taste and we can event a new wine called a Rusty Wine. Am I missing something? Isn’t the whole idea about making wine an art, not finding a way to change it once you screwed up.