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Re: The Background...

PostPosted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:04 pm
by Dan Smothergill
Well, the pot appears to be near boiling thank you!

This is less a matter of who's right and wrong than being open minded. Questions about wine, like most questions, are best decided by science than by professionals.

Dale wrote:
In the case of magnets, an enormous amount of scientific knowledge exists re magnetism. None of this knowledge supports the idea that magnets will "age" or improve wine.

I try keeping up on this literature but am unaware of the studies you are referring to. Help?

Re: The Background...

PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:16 pm
by Oliver McCrum
Dan Smothergill wrote:This is less a matter of who's right and wrong than being open minded. Questions about wine, like most questions, are best decided by science than by professionals.



You're channelling Dr. Science*: "There is a thin line between ignorance and arrogance," he says, "and only I have managed to erase that line."

*www.drscience.com[/url]

Re: The Background...

PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:41 pm
by Dale Williams
Dan Smothergill wrote:Well, the pot appears to be near boiling thank you!

This is less a matter of who's right and wrong than being open minded. Questions about wine, like most questions, are best decided by science than by professionals.

Dale wrote:
In the case of magnets, an enormous amount of scientific knowledge exists re magnetism. None of this knowledge supports the idea that magnets will "age" or improve wine.

I try keeping up on this literature but am unaware of the studies you are referring to. Help?


Several people did separate double-blind tests of the various wine on the Randi.org site.

Robin also reported on one:
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvis ... 1128.phtml

There was also this one from a British college:
http://tinyurl.com/ytq8g2

My favorite was the one where the radiologists put wine in an MRI machine, but I can't find that one.

James Randi also offered the maker of the Wine Clip a chance at his $1 Million prize , but the maker refused to participate in the test.

I'd be thrilled at the thought someone would do a big doubleblind test of travel shock. Until they do, as I noted, I'll try and play it safe as much as possible.

Re: The Background...

PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:53 pm
by Oliver McCrum
Dale,

If you lived out here I'd invite you to one of the 'experimental' tastings that we do every time a container lands, tasting the wines off the container to see if they're showing well. In the meantime you'll have to make do with Tom's very small blind experiment. (His description of the difference between the two wines is exactly what I would have thought, incidentally; it's always the same kind of difference.)

Re: Traveling Shock..Another Data Point...(long/boring)

PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 3:42 pm
by Peter May
I personally rest wines before drinking, it seems sort of obvious that being shaken around is not good for a wine.

However it seems that most weeks there is a wine trade show and wine competition somewhere in the world where wine has been shipped in from the four corners, opened and judged or shown to buyers, so I wonder just how seriously the trade takes 'resting'.

Is it perhaps a perfect excuse to a less than thrilled consumer, to be placed alongside 'it needs food' and 'it need to be kept at least 5years'?

Re: Traveling Shock..Another Data Point...(long/boring)

PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:26 pm
by Rahsaan
Peter May wrote:However it seems that most weeks there is a wine trade show and wine competition somewhere in the world where wine has been shipped in from the four corners, opened and judged or shown to buyers, so I wonder just how seriously the trade takes 'resting'.


Aren't the wines often shipped ahead of the actual event?

Or are professionals supposed to see through the minor temporary blemishes to divine the underlying truth.

Re: Traveling Shock..Another Data Point...(long/boring)

PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:46 pm
by Oliver McCrum
Air freight appears to be much less of a problem than ocean freight.

There are people who bottle just days ahead of Vinitaly, despite the certainty that the wine will be negatively affected; some producers don't worry enough about those things. (Don't get me started on warm red wine at trade shows, either.)