Well how do you like that. French scientists are using particle accelerators to help authenticate vintage wines. As if the French weren’t big enough wine snobs to begin with. Not to mention that somebody paid for this research.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a good glass of wine now and again. But I am not a sommelier by any stretch. So forgive me if I find this new technique – or even the fact that it’s ‘needed’ – a little odd.

So how do they do it? They test the age of the glass in wine bottles by placing them under ion beams and analyzing the emitted X-rays. It’s supposed to not only verify the age, but the origin of the bottle. All without opening the bottle.

And that’s the important part for collectors. You wouldn’t want to ruin a bottle by opening it, but how else are you going to tell if it’s authentic? With this new method, the wine remains safely unopened. Interesting. I bet that serious collectors will love this idea.

Looks like a London wine dealer helped the National Centre for Scientific Research develop the new test.

[Source]

Post from: Simply Dumb