Researchers have developed a nanosensor that mimics what happens in your mouth when you drink wine, an advance that may help improve the taste of the alcoholic beverage.
Researchers at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre (iNANO), Aarhus University, developed the nanosensor that is capable of measuring the effect of astringency in your mouth when you drink wine.
To put it simply, the sensor is a kind of mini-mouth that uses salivary proteins to measure the sensation that occurs in your mouth when you drink wine, researchers said.
It is the first time that a sensor has been produced that not only measures the amount of proteins and molecules in your mouth when you drink wine, but also measures the effect of wine - or other substances - entering your mouth, researchers said.
The sensor makes it possible for wine producers to control the development of astringency during wine production because they can measure the level of astringency in the wine right from the beginning of the process.
This can currently only be achieved when the wine is ready and only by using a professional tasting panel - with the associated risk of human inaccuracy.
Using the sensor, producers can work towards the desired sensation of dryness before the wine is ready.
"We don't want to replace the wine taster. We just want a tool that is useful in wine production. When you produce wine, you know that the finished product should have a distinct taste with a certain level of astringency. If it doesn't work, people won't drink the wine," said Joana Guerreiro, first author of the scientific article in ACS NANO, which describes the sensor.
The sensor is a small plate coated with nanoscale gold particles. On this plate, the researchers simulate what happens in your mouth by first adding some of the proteins contained in your saliva. After this they add the wine.
The gold particles on the plate act as nano-optics and make it possible to focus a beam of light below the diffraction limit so as to precisely measure something that is very small - right down to 20 nanometres.
This makes it possible to study and follow the proteins, and to see what effect the wine has. It is thereby possible to see the extent to which the small molecules have to bind together for the clumping effect on the protein to be set off.
Researchers said the sensor has far greater prospects than improving wine production. The technique that makes it possible to very accurately measure the effect of something on the molecular plane can also be used to develop targeted medicine.
