If you just spent a good deal of cash for a bottle of 2003 Opus One Cabernet Sauvignon you’d likely be hoping nothing went wrong prior to the bottle arriving to your lips. Like the wine leaving its optimal temperature range. If Cletus decided to throw the box of wine bottles up front with him and leave them there for 3 hours while he went into a truckstop in Nevada you’d be inclined to want to know that information.
Wine makers now have an option to ensure we get the best product. A digital thermometer that sits in the neck of the bottle, about the size of a sugar packet, will blink green if all is well. If there was trouble it’ll blink yellow. The thermometer does record the temperature and that information can be downloaded by the suppliers.
I’m not sure how feasible this will be for the average vintner. Corks are out of fashion due to cost. I certainly don’t believe in the whole change to screw tops and rubber stoppers to be driven by the green movement. That may be Disney’s claim for why they do this, but the cost of cork is a more likely culprit in the changeover for your local wine family. The thermometers cost $1.60, which means you probably won’t see them in anything but the highest quality wines.
