Wine Fraud Terminator

I was absolutely amazed by one of Tom Wark's posts this week over at Fermentation. Apparently an Australian winemaker has threatened to sue a wine blogger over a negative review of his wine.

This is just astounding. First, haven't they ever seen Gene Shalit or Roger Ebert trash a movie? They don't have a clue just how good they have it now. Wines never get trashed the way movies or other forms of pop culture do. Plus, I could go on and on about the value that blogging brings to consumers, from hot tips to red flags about all kinds of products.


But a story I read today has given me a new thought. Scientists have developed a robotic winetaster capable of sniffing out fraud of all kinds. Perhaps we should consign the bulk of wine reviews to the winebot? Right now it can correctly identify 30 unique organic components of wine, and can sniff out fraud of many kinds, such as using varietals not labeled or proportions not permitted because of what's stated on the label. Yup, winemakers could have it a lot tougher, and they are going to.