A little innovation which makes wine appreciation easier

An innovation to help wine consumers.

Wine is a fragile creature. If you wish to age it right, then you need to store it in right conditions. Likewise, if you want the opportunity to enjoy its aromas, flavours and body, then it needs to be served at the right temperature as well.

Take a white wine for an example. Serve it too cold and the aromas get muted, flavours become unnoticeable, the acidity and structure make their presence felt a little too prominently; the wine loses balance. Now serve the same wine on the warm side; though the aromas and flavours reveal themselves, the body becomes flabby with alcohol showing a little upfront; again the wine loses balance. The wine reveals, but not it a manner you enjoy it.

Not many of us carry a wine thermometer in our arsenal when we go drinking with family and friends. Even at most trade tastings, it usually begins with a little guesswork. The sommelier or merchant at hand takes a sip and remarks if the wine is too cold or too warm and takes remedial action (till he feels it is ideal for tasting).

Marques de Tomares Don Roman Brut NV

At a recent event I attended, much to my pleasant surprise, I came across a wine bottle which takes away this guesswork with an innovative solution. It was a cava; Marques de Tomares Don Roman Brut NV.



The bottle on the right shows the blue logo on the upper left hand corner of it's wine label.

It has a little temperature sensor on the left, top corner of its wine label. When you chill the wine down to the appropriate serving temperature (in this case between 6C and 8 C), a small blue logo becomes visible. Consumers (both experienced and novice alike) can easily identify this blue logo and recognize that the wine is at an ideal serving temperature. It certainly removes the guesswork and makes life a little easy for the sommelier as well.

I’ve heard about these sensors before but it is difficult to see them on wine bottles sold locally here. They are more of an exception rather than the norm (if current industry practice is anything to go by). One hopes that more such innovations can be introduced in the near future; it will certainly make wine appreciation a little easier for consumers.