Wine Tasting Robot?

[Carolyn Tillie]

You have to wonder at who thinks of these things...

A robotic wine taster, capable of distinguishing between 30 different varieties or blends of grape, has been developed by engineers in Japan.

The idea is to automate wine analysis so that retailers and customs officials can easily check that a wine is indeed what its label declares.

The wine-bot was developed by scientists from NEC's System Technologies laboratory and Mie University, both in Japan. It is about twice the size of a 3-litre wine box and consists of a microcomputer and an optical sensing instrument.

Full Story

[fifithewinecat]

The horrible thing is that a publisher's weekly states they have plans to put out a newsletter, starting in December 2006. "Winebot Best Picks" will be both an electronic and paper newsletter, and will initially cost $37.50 per year. It will expand in size with each issue, and eventually the cost per year will go up too.

Of course the master winebot will do the premium tastings, while the winebots sold to the public will be lesser grade machines. Reportedly, Robert Parker and Wine Spectator are negotiating with the manufacturer concerning this machine and the planned newsletter.