Here's to More Research

ASEE Prism, Apr 2006 by Grose, Thomas K

CHEMICAL

THE COMPLEX and pleasing taste of a well-made wine results from a cocktail of many chemicals mixing it up during fermentation. But why and how they manage to produce such a beguil-ing drink is something that's long stumped scientists. It's a secret that many of them are still trying to divine. For instance, Carnegie Mellon University chemical engineering professor Lorenze Biegler wants to develop computer models that will help vintners to consistently make fine wines, rather than reiving on the hit-or-miss methods now employed. Beigler is initially looking at yeast, which is key to fermentation. Alcohol is created when yeast consumes the sugar from the grape juice. "We would like to come up with a reasonably good model of how this yeast cell behaves," he says. The object: to "control the fermentation process so we can make better quality wines." He's working with an "aroma lab" at the Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. Researchers there are trying to pinpoint which chemicals produce the fragrances and flavors necessary for a good wine.

But wine's heady flavors aren't easily analyzed or understood. Indeed, the Chilean researchers are working with only white wines because reds are too complicated. Mark Chien, a wine-grape expert at Pennsylvania State University, says demystifying the processes that create good wines sounds easy in theory but isn't in practice. "It's a fascinating scientific exercise, but nobody's been able to prove you can do something like that." A most sobering thought.-TG