Wine may well bring out the truth but it may soon be forced to yield a few secrets of its own, with Australian scientists planning to use the tools of archaeology to authenticate wines and detect additives.
 |
| Australian scientists use nuclear tools of archaeology to authenticate wines and detect additives. |
The research, by scientists at the University of Adelaide and ANSTO centres on carbon-14, the naturally occurring radioactive isotope best known for its use in the dating of ancient organic material.
Led by Dr Graham Jones, a Senior Lecturer in Oenology in the Department of Horticulture, Viticulture and Oenology at the University of Adelaide, and Dr Claudio Tuniz, Director of ANSTO's Physics Division, the work is expected to benefit Australian wine makers seeking entry into foreign markets.
The team's method is based on the increase in carbon-14 in the environment during the Cold War and its decrease over the past 40 years.
Radiocarbon levels surged during the Cold War atmospheric nuclear bomb tests when neutrons generated in the blasts interacted with atmospheric nitrogen to form the radioisotope.
The team will use the Australian National Tandem Accelerator (ANTARES) to measure the levels of carbon isotopes in red wine.
ANTARES, which is capable of detecting concentrations as low as one atom in a thousand million million, will reveal the age of individual wine components to a precision of less than a year.
ANTARES will be able to detect additives, including alcohol, not formed during the initial grape fermentation.
"By having a technique to accurately determine the age of the various components of a wine we have a method for validating wine vintage, even if some components such as top-up wine are added later," says Dr Jones, an expert in wine chemistry.
He says the work could assist the entry of Australian wines into overseas markets by providing objective proof of the production methods used.
"We want to have the tools in place to prove that our wine is authentic should this proof be required," he says.
Dr Tuniz, meanwhile, says the research could also find applications in forensic studies using radiocarbon levels to determine the time of death of people in the past 50 years.
"ANSTO and the University of Sydney recently determined the atmospheric radiocarbon levels in the last 50 years by reading records of the isotope in trees," he says.
"Wine also is a reservoir of environmental data which will complement the results from trees."
The scientists plan to extract that data from vintage wine series supplied by some of Australia's leading producers.
Published: 04/03/1999