Wine Pirates

Seems that software isn’t the only thing being pirated these days. Wine has fallen prey to this underground mischief – how could it have not? Magnums of 1921 Bordeaux from France’s legendary Chateau Petrus have sold for up to $75,000 at auction. It’s no wonder these gems attract counterfeiters.

In the May 2008 issue of Wired Magazine on page 41 they have outlined a list of counterfeit-fighting technologies that high-end wine makers are stating to utilize.

3-D Labeling
The Tech A hologram-like "optically variable device," bearing a 3-D image that’s specific to a particular brand, is applied to the neck capsule.
Who’s Using It A consortium of Brunello producers in Italy, including makers of the Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona brand.

Algorithm IDs
The Tech The label is marked with a unique algorithm and serial number, which can then be tracked online or via SMS.
Who’s Using It Wineries in France’s Bordeaux region.

DNA Marking
The Tech Grape DNA info is hidden on a special seal on the bottle’s neck. If the authenticity is in doubt, the DNA of the wine in the bottle can be compared with the genome on the neck.
Who’s Using It Aussie printer Collotype Labels pioneered the tech with vintner Hardys, which has since stopped using it. Applied DNA Sciences in the US is marketing a similar approach.

Bottle Etching
The Tech Distinguishing information is etched into the bottle with a laser.
Who’s Using It Australian winemaker Penfolds adopted etching after a series of forgeries and thefts in the late ’90s. Chateau Mouton Rothschild uses it as well.

Invisible Ink
The Tech A chemical is added to the ink used for printing labels. It’s detectable only with a special handheld scanner— no other analysis can find it.
Who’s Using It A handful of Napa Valley wineries— HL Vineyards, Vineyard 29, and Staglin Family Vineyard— use a version sold by Kodak.

RFID Corks
The Tech Synthetic corks are embedded with radio frequency identification chips that can be coded with an ID number.
Who’s Using It Patented as Smartcorq by Italy’s Lab ID, the tech has been deployed by Umbrian winery Arnaldo Caprai.

I find it fascinating the simplicity of these security measures. And to think we have come to a place in time where these tactics must be used. Although, being such an art form, I guess it must have its protective measures.

Read the full article here

Homemade Monitoring

Ideal wine storage is just about 13C (54- 56F). How do you make sure that your cellar is always this temperature? Well, that may take a little more than monitoring, but remote monitoring in a nice feature to have in your wine cellar.

Homemade Wine Cellar Monitor using OWFS

If you are a hardware hacker and like to tinker around with electronics
like I do, then this may be of interest to you.

The setup uses the OWFS program – an easy way to use the powerful 1-wire system of Dallas/Maxim. This is a simple and flexible program for monitoring and controlling the physical environment. You can write scripts to read temperature, display information on an LCD, log and graph.

Learn more about OWFS here.

Once I finally get things in order, and have a functioning wine cellar, you can bet I will try this out. It seems like a truly easy way to monitor without the expensive equipment. Furthermore, you should be able to automate temperature control systems with this.

One thought I always keep in mind though, and it sounds so cliché, is that good wine is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. I try not to let technology make me lazy. These fancy devices weren’t around for our ancestors to use, and they controlled their environments just fine.

Wine Cellar Management Software

Wine cellar management has to be quite a task when your collection starts to get into triple digits. I can only wish (at the moment) to have a wine cellar with such contents. When I do this software seems to be quite promising. Wine XT seems straightforward and easy to use.

From the publishers site:

“Wine XT for Apple Macintosh MacOS X is an essential tool to manage the contents of your wine cellar with your mac. This wine database offers a clear presentation and flexibility in use on your Mac. Pleasant and easy to use, Wine XT makes it possible to enter information in a fast way by easy functions like other Mac Os X software. You can manage your wine inventory and your own wine tasting notes. You can note sight, smell, taste and the quality of a wine in your wine collection. Manage the wine cellar racks, reviews and used wine with this wine collector accessory. Using the MacOS X system address book for winery and supplier addresses.”

Wine XT even offers international support for 10 different languages – although not complete translations.  It runs on Macs only – I have not came across any PC equivalent. Personally I am a Mac user but would be interested in locating a PC version of such software.

Wine XT can be purchased from its publisher’s site:

http://www.wine-software.net/