Most of us associate wine with play and relaxation, but for a few hundred scientists around the world, it is what they spend the working day studying, in sometimes headache-inducing detail.
The most cited articles listed by the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, for instance, include “Colorimetry of Total Phenolics with Phosphomolybdic-Phosphotungstic Acid Reagents” and “Measurement of Polymeric Pigments in Grape Berry Extracts and Wines Using a Protein Precipitation Assay Combined with Bisulfite Bleaching”. A rather long way from “a glass of red, please” – but all aimed at improving the quality of that red, or white, or rosé.
Every few years I take a look at the preoccupations of the leading international wine research centres, and it is always an illuminating reflection of how the wine world is evolving.