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Magnetic Therapy for Wine

Oops, I apologize. I just read the recent commentary by Randi and he has just covered this topic. I guess there must be a surge in newspaper stories about wine magnets this week.
 
I made a small test this week-end. Using a no-drip insert (of stainless steel) and two 12mm Neodynium magnets, I made a magnetic spout. The wine under test was an Australian table wine in the economic price bracket, a Banrock Station 2004, Shiraz. I know this wine well. It is a rather dry, crisp wine, fairly rich in tannin, and with some acidity. Pouring it through a the powerful magnet field (these magnets are so strong that if you clip them together, you can't pry them apart with your fingers, you have to slide them till they are edge-on) had no appreciable effect on the taste. I did not use blinding, but since I found no difference in the test, it is unlikely that blinding would have made any difference. Has I noticed a difference, I would, of course, have repeated the experiment with blinding.

Thus my conclusion is that the device mentioned might have some effect by aereating or filtering the wine, but the magnets are not contributing.

Hans
 
MRC_Hans said:
Thus my conclusion is that the device mentioned might have some effect by aereating or filtering the wine, but the magnets are not contributing.
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Hah! That's because you didn't use the SooperSecretPatented whatchamahoozy thingie, and just made your own el-cheapo imitation knockoff. Had you used the SooperSecretPatented whatchamahoozy thingie, which of course is produced under carefully-controlled factory conditions, and is a far superior products, as proven by its $30 price tag, instead of your el-cheapo imitation knockoff, you would have immediately noticed a startling transformation of your skanky Aussie Banrock Station '04 Shiraz into a fine '03 California Rosenblum Petit Sirah.

Plus your taste buds stink.
 
Psi Baba said:
Ha!
I concur with BPSCG, though. I've had some good Australian wine (though I won't name them lest it turns out I'm liking the wrong ones!).
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I've found that the Bernard Griffin winery produces some that are very good in their price point; in particular, a shiraz port that, although a few years in the cellar would do it some good, is already quite drinkable. The shiraz grape seems to be a very good one for Australia, and sweeter reds based on it are the best bet. Not as fond of the drier ones (Chilean winer Secreto makes a good semi-dry syrah, and a quite passable malbec); and I've yet to find a non-shiraz Aussie wine that I really liked.
 
Mrs. BPSCG and I have recently become enamored of petit sirah; grape is related to sirah (shiraz), but not the same grape. And there is nothing "petit" about the wine; it's typically massive, incredibly full-bodied. Kinda ruined a lot of other reds for me.
 
On my way to a holiday party, I stopped off at a new wine shop in town to pick up a bottle. While I was checking out, Hokulele Dad saw a display of magnetic wine clips for $35 that claims to improve the quality of wine instantly. I laughed and asked the store clerk what this is all about. He was dead serious that it makes all the difference to the drinkability of wine. I tried to ask him under what reason it did that, but all he can say was it was invented by a guy who desiged a filter system for a submarine, as thought that had anything to do with magnet or wine.

I did a quick google on the Forum threads and came up with this thread among others.

So, it is another gift-giving season and the scammers are out there. Keep the Occam's Razor honed.

Gee, I hope my students aren't foolish enough to fall for another magnet scam.....

Hokulele Mom
 
Personally i love to drink, but i can't stand the taste of any alcohol ( besides tequilla and Jagermeister, while they don't taste pleasant they don't taste like alcohol. ), it kinda works out as price and alcohol content are my only concerns. I always love when someone has a wine/whiskey/beer that i " have to try.", it always ends up with me drinking quite a bit saying " Yep still tastes like ****" and going back to my bottle of whatever is on sale. My favorite was " Hobgoblin ale." , my response was " That is exactly what i would have called it. "

Now interestingly enough, being a " whats on sale" drinker has lead to me drinking quite a few different types of alcohol. So while i don't really have a preference, i am pretty versed in the different types of alcohol.
 
It still doesn't work - and, barring certain changes in the laws of Nature/Physics, it never will. Sigh.......
 
Wow, an honest drinker!!
I've alway's said "Why would I want to put something that smells that way in my mouth!!"
I've picked up better smelling things off the floor of burned poultry houses, so I won't touch any booze.
 
Magnets work on iron filings and not wine finings.
Or anything else.
What a waste, taking up time better spent drinking wine
 
Hokulele Mom said:
On my way to a holiday party, I stopped off at a new wine shop in town to pick up a bottle. While I was checking out, Hokulele Dad saw a display of magnetic wine clips for $35 that claims to improve the quality of wine instantly. I laughed and asked the store clerk what this is all about. He was dead serious that it makes all the difference to the drinkability of wine. I tried to ask him under what reason it did that, but all he can say was it was invented by a guy who desiged a filter system for a submarine, as thought that had anything to do with magnet or wine.

I did a quick google on the Forum threads and came up with this thread among others.

So, it is another gift-giving season and the scammers are out there. Keep the Occam's Razor honed.

Gee, I hope my students aren't foolish enough to fall for another magnet scam.....

Hokulele Mom
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Now, wine is a complex substance. Magnets have some effect on flowing liquids. So, magnets just possibly might have some effect on wine. But, what is the chance that it will improve the taste?

Hans
 
MRC_Hans said:
Now, wine is a complex substance. Magnets have some effect on flowing liquids. So, magnets just possibly might have some effect on wine. But, what is the chance that it will improve the taste?

Hans
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Liquid oxygen with two unpaired electrons is paramagnetic and will be attracted to the magnetic field, but most liquids are diamagnetic and repelled very slightly by the magnetic field. These effects still have nothing to do with changing the drinkability of wine.

Magnetic wine clip is still a scam in my book.

H Mom
 
BPSCG said:
If this isn't a perfect subject for a controlled, double-blind test, then there is no such thing.
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This.

To all:

BTW, all wine claims are suspect, not just this silly magnet.

Think that $50 bottle of snooty French wine really tastes better than three-buck chuck? Do a blind tasting.

Check out the latest episode of Freakonomics Radio called "Do Expensive Wines Really Taste Better?"

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519
 
Puppycow said:
This.

To all:

BTW, all wine claims are suspect, not just this silly magnet.

Think that $50 bottle of snooty French wine really tastes better than three-buck chuck? Do a blind tasting.

Check out the latest episode of Freakonomics Radio called "Do Expensive Wines Really Taste Better?"

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519
Click to expand...

I call your bluff on that claim: not all wine claims are suspect. A group of colleagues and I would have dinner together every second Thursday, at which we'd do a blind tasting. The rules were simple: we'd nominate a theme, then everybody would bring a wine wrapped in a paper bag conforming to the theme. We'd taste and eat and talk, then rank the wines.

The observations:
- there was absolutely no consistency in how middle-priced and more expensive wines rated. Sometimes the winner would be a top-priced wine, sometimes not. Often the order of merit would be mixed.
- Usually, wines that were legendary in their niche did very well on tastings. A notable exception were French Bordeaux, where first growths would be trounced by lesser growth wines.
- We tried to slip in utter cheap-and-nasty wines, to see if we could get away with it. Epic fail - they were always picked as the least pleasing wines.

Some of the wine nights were rather expensive:
- all First-Growth Bordeaux
- Penfolds Grange vertical tasting
- More than 15 Year-Old Reds

Most the wines came from our cellars, but if we actually purchased them at current market price there were bottles that were fetching $300+ (and no, I wouldn't pay that much for them - they're not that much better...).
 
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Kid Eager said:
I call your bluff on that claim: not all wine claims are suspect. A group of colleagues and I would have dinner together every second Thursday, at which we'd do a blind tasting. The rules were simple: we'd nominate a theme, then everybody would bring a wine wrapped in a paper bag conforming to the theme. We'd taste and eat and talk, then rank the wines.

The observations:
- there was absolutely no consistency in how middle-priced and more expensive wines rated. Sometimes the winner would be a top-priced wine, sometimes not. Often the order of merit would be mixed.
- Usually, wines that were legendary in their niche did very well on tastings. A notable exception were French Bordeaux, where first growths would be trounced by lesser growth wines.
- We tried to slip in utter cheap-and-nasty wines, to see if we could get away with it. Epic fail - they were always picked as the least pleasing wines.

Some of the wine nights were rather expensive:
- all First-Growth Bordeaux
- Penfolds Grange vertical tasting
- More than 15 Year-Old Reds

Most the wines came from our cellars, but if we actually purchased them at current market price there were bottles that were fetching $300+ (and no, I wouldn't pay that much for them - they're not that much better...).
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Are you saying that all cheap wine is nasty? BTW, I don't mean hobo juice, like the stuff you find on this page, but, for example, cheap California wines like an inexpensive Pinot Noir or Merlot.
 
Puppycow said:
Are you saying that all cheap wine is nasty? BTW, I don't mean hobo juice, like the stuff you find on this page, but, for example, cheap California wines like an inexpensive Pinot Noir or Merlot.
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As I'm in Australia, we don't (as far as I'm aware) concern ourselves with "cheap Californian wine", whatever that may be.... :p We did, however, conduct some experiments to see how cheap we could go with a bottle of wine before it became noticeably less nice.

With respect to bottled red wine, we found it was not possible to buy a bad one at any price from a shop. However, once we got below around $11 per bottle down to the lowest price of around $8.99 (price per single bottle) I think it was, the wines were "thinner" or less rich in their flavour. In the $15-$20 price range you could pretty much be guaranteed that any wine you selected would be very nice.
 
I have met supermarket wines that were distinctly poor in taste, but so much depends on context. The wine you drink on a warm summer night, in good company, will not taste the same on a winters day.

It also depends on the food, if you have food with the wine. The wine that was fine for a chicken may not live up to a steak, and the wine that did fine to that spicy deer roast will probably be much to heavy if you drink it on its own.

Hans
 
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