Wine
A visitor holds a glass of Barbera D'Asti red wine at the 50th Vinitaly international wine and spirits exhibition in Verona, northern Italy, April 11, 2016. Reuters/Stefano Rellandini

Researchers have developed a miniature device that may be capable of producing an endless supply of wine with the help of strategically-placed yeast and fermenting plane old grape juice. American and Swiss scientists are currently trialling the micro winery that can turn grape juice into alcoholic wine in just an hour. Conventional winemakers sometimes take weeks to produce the alcoholic wine.

Daniel Attinger, a professor of mechanical at engineering at Iowa State University, is working on developing a tiny device. He, along with a team of researchers at the Swiss research institute Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), hoped that the micro winery will help wine experts advance their knowledge of the fermentation process involved in wine making.

A wine connoisseur, Attinger believes climate change is affecting grape crops around the world. Certain crops ripen very quickly because of the heat. As the harvest takes place sooner, the wines end up with an altered taste and high alcohol content. The device he is developing will help wine makers identify the best temperatures and yeasts for the fermentation process.

“Let’s say a winemaker in the Lavaux region of Switzerland finds that a certain type of yeast or a certain fermentation temperature leads to an overly bitter wine. We could quickly test alternatives,” Attinger said in a statement.

This will be made possible by the device as it very small and temperatures can be increased or decreased rapidly. The device uses compartments to easily repeat the fermentation process. In traditional wineries, it takes weeks to separate the yeast from the wine as they are mixed together. This won’t be a problem in case of this new magic device.

Head of EPFL’s Microsystems Laboratory, Philippe Renaud, believes that wine lovers will definitely be able to produce wine at home in a few hours. However, that’s for the future as teh current produce is not as good as normal wine.