Wine Gizmos

Popular Science has a really cool little feature up on their site about three wine gadgets that those of us with jobs and money to burn would surely love to own. The first, an electronic "wine tongue" I've mentioned here on wine news before. It uses a variety of components like acidity and chemical compounds to authenticate a wine to its year and region. Not a bad thing to have with counterfeiting being as rampant as it is in the wine biz.

The second tests a wine's age using, of all things, a particle accelerator. This is especially cool because you don't even need to open a bottle to test it. And the third is a gizmo that helps vintners to perfectly irrigate their vines. According to the article - "A computer considers these readings, the variety's demands and climatic conditions, and determines irrigation settings so that grapes get their optimal daily water."