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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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8-08-2006 @2:03PM Darren said... Right, and a green sharpie improves the sound of CDs...
I think we should see the result of double-blind testing before we start giving credence to ridiculous claims like these.
If you put the magnets on upside-down, does it make good wine taste bad?
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8-08-2006 @2:27PM Pranav said... Yeah, this all sounds like shenanigans. There's a funny article about the "brash" young wines at officePirates:
http://www.officepirates.com/officepirates/fyi/0,26102,1224083,00.html
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8-08-2006 @2:49PM Myron said... Magnets can also relieve arthritis, help your golf swing, improve gas mileage, and make primary and secondary sex organs larger. They are truly a miracle.
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8-08-2006 @6:00PM PopFitnez said... I think a Ferrari badge on Toyota does not fool many people. Well, I hope anyway.
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8-10-2006 @6:33PM Patrick Farrell, MW said... I too was beyond skeptical to the point of cynical when first approached with the concept. By the way, I am from Huntington Beach and not from Napa, though am one of only 25 masters of wine in the States. I did have the curiosity, and the obligation since a friend had asked me to try the first prototype, to try magnets on a bottle of wine. I was shocked to discover that it worked and then became involved with the two initial partners. I then suggested a pourer.
For those with some wine chemistry knowledge, tannins are negatively charged particles (electrostatic charges are the basis of fining) which polymerize during years in the bottle, without the benefit of oxygen. Oxygen, via pumping over in the winery or decanting at home, stimulates these tannins to polymerize. Adding a strong magnetic field along with some additional oxygen simply speeds up this process. Given that tannins are charged particles, this makes perfect sense to me. I am not satisfied with my theory and have samples of wine and spirits at UCLA as we speak, looking do discover the chemical changes that take place.
In terms of blind tasting, I have blind tasted many professionals including winemakers, masters of wine and master of wine students to demonstrate that the device works. I will do another, more formal blind tasting this weekend with two masters of wine.
All that we are trying to do is to offer the consumer a tool to make young, extracted, oaky and "tannic" wines more palatable when consumed in their youth. We are happy to send legitimate wine and spirits journalists samples and suggested tasting protocols to demonstrate that given the right wines, the devices can have a significant impact.
Cheers,
Patrick Farrell, MW
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