Is it just me, or does the Bev Wizard smack of the alchemists' fabled attempts to turn lead into gold? The inventor of the device claims that using magnets improves the taste of wines, rendering their tannins softer. As you can see the wizard is little more than a pourer with a magnet inside.
Patrick Farrell, the gizmo's inventor, a doctor from Napa, is a Master of Wine, a prestigious designation synomous with expertise in oenology. Farrell happened upon the idea of using magnets when some acquaintances were distributing magnets to try to improve water quality. He started out by tying magnets to the neck of a bottle, and was surprised to see that his makeshift device rendered a bottle of Australian shiraz smoother and fruitier.
Farrell claims that the Bev Wizard's magnetic field alters the shape of a wine's tannins, rendering them larger and softer. But chemistry professor David Ball says magnetic fields aren't strong enough to alter the shape of tannins. Note to self: bring bottle of Two Buck Chuck to MRI next week.
One thing's for sure the Bev Wizard is certainly less out there than this Japanese device that came out last fall.
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