Seeing is smelling for a camera system developed by scientists in Japan that images ethanol vapour escaping from a wine glass. And, perhaps most importantly, no wine is wasted in the process. 
 
 Kohji Mitsubayashi, at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and colleagues impregnated a mesh with the enzyme alcohol oxidase, which converts low molecular weight alcohols and oxygen into aldehydes and hydrogen peroxide. Horseradish peroxide and luminol were also immobilised on the mesh and together initiate a colour change in response to hydrogen peroxide. When this mesh is placed on top of a wine glass, colour images from a camera watching over the mesh on top of a glass of wine can be interpreted to map the concentration distribution of ethanol leaving the glass. 
 
 Different glass shapes and temperatures can bring out completely different bouquets and finishes from the same wine. So Mitsubayashi’s team analysed different wines, in different glasses – including different shaped wine glasses, a martini glass and a straight glass – at different temperatures. 
 
 At 13°C, the alcohol concentration in the centre of the wine glass was lower than that around the rim. Wine served at a higher temperature, or from the martini or straight glass, did not exhibit a ring-shaped vapour pattern. ‘This ring phenomenon allows us to enjoy the wine aroma without interference of gaseous ethanol. Accordingly, wine glass shape has a very sophisticated functional design for tasting and enjoying wine,’ explains Mitsubayashi. 
 
 Wine scientist Régis Gougeon, from the University of Burgundy, France, says the work is really interesting when considering its experimental setup, which allows for a rather straightforward and inexpensive detection of ethanol. ‘Bearing in mind the flavour enhancer properties of ethanol, this work provides an unprecedented image of the claimed impact of glass geometry on the overall complex wine flavour perception, thus validating the search for optimum adequation between a glass and a wine.’ 
 
 In the future the system could help indicate the best wine glass and precise temperature to serve a certain wine. 
 
 This article is reproduced with permission from Chemistry World. The article was first published on April 10, 2015. ||||| TOKYO, April 15 (UPI) -- The sommelier who said you shouldn't drink red wine out of a white wine glass may be a snob, but they're not entirely wrong. New research proves the shape of a wine glass does affect how wine taste and smells. 
 
 To prove as much, researchers developed a camera system to observe how the chemical profile of wine is altered as it exits different shapes. 
 
 The system featured a mesh strainer coated with alcohol oxidase, an enzyme that converts alcohols and oxygen into aldehydes and hydrogen peroxide. The mesh also featured horseradish peroxide and luminol so that the presence of hydrogen peroxide would initiate a color change. 
 
 The mesh was placed atop variously sized wine glasses as they were tipped to release the contents over the edge. A camera interpreted the chemical reactions and changing colors to map the concentration and distribution of ethanol as left each glass. 
 
 Researchers used their system to test a variety wines in three different glass shapes. They also tested each combination at a variety of temperature points. Different combinations produced different concentrations and distributions of ethanol -- which can affect a taster's ability to identify the subtleties of food flavors in a wine. 
 
 "We selected three types of glasses -- a wine glass, a cocktail glass, and a straight glass -- to determine the differences in ethanol emission caused by the shape effects of the glass," researchers explained in their paper on the experiment, published in the journal Analyst. 
 
 Traditional wine glasses produced a distribution of wine concentrated around the rim of the glass, with less ethanol in the center. 
 
 "This ring phenomenon allows us to enjoy the wine aroma without interference of gaseous ethanol," study author Kohji Mitsubayashi, a researcher at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, told Chemistry World. "Accordingly, wine glass shape has a very sophisticated functional design for tasting and enjoying wine." 
 
 "Bearing in mind the flavor enhancer properties of ethanol, this work provides an unprecedented image of the claimed impact of glass geometry on the overall complex wine flavor perception," said Regis Gougeon, a wine scientist at the University of Burgundy, in France. 
 
 Gougeon says the research justifies the search for the ideal partnership of wine and wine glass. ||||| A two-dimensional imaging system (Sniffer-camera) for visualizing the concentration distribution of ethanol vapor emitting from wine in a wine glass has been developed. This system provides image information of ethanol vapor concentration using chemiluminescence (CL) from an enzyme-immobilized mesh. This system measures ethanol vapor concentration as CL intensities from luminol reactions induced by alcohol oxidase and a horseradish peroxidase (HRP)–luminol–hydrogen peroxide system. Conversion of ethanol distribution and concentration to two-dimensional CL was conducted using an enzyme-immobilized mesh containing an alcohol oxidase, horseradish peroxidase, and luminol solution. The temporal changes in CL were detected using an electron multiplier (EM)-CCD camera and analyzed. We selected three types of glasses—a wine glass, a cocktail glass, and a straight glass—to determine the differences in ethanol emission caused by the shape effects of the glass. The emission measurements of ethanol vapor from wine in each glass were successfully visualized, with pixel intensity reflecting ethanol concentration. Of note, a characteristic ring shape attributed to high alcohol concentration appeared near the rim of the wine glass containing 13 °C wine. Thus, the alcohol concentration in the center of the wine glass was comparatively lower. The Sniffer-camera was demonstrated to be sufficiently useful for non-destructive ethanol measurement for the assessment of food characteristics.
– As snotty as people might sound when they insist on a wine glass with a certain shape, it turns out they're right: The shape of that glass actually does have a bearing on how the drink tastes, Scientific American reports. Scientists made that clear using what they have dubbed, in the journal Analyst, a "sniffer-camera." Researchers placed a combination of chemicals on a mesh strainer, which they put on wine glasses. The camera, which showed images of ethanol vapor, revealed how that chemical was distributed in the wine. And ethanol concentrations, UPI reports, can influence the taster's perception. Turns out that wine in researchers' wine glasses, at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, had a lower concentration of alcohol in the middle of the glass than around the rim, Scientific American reports. But wine in a martini glass, a straight glass, or served warmer didn't have the same "ring phenomenon," which, a researcher says, "allows us to enjoy the wine aroma without interference of gaseous ethanol. Accordingly, wine glass shape has a very sophisticated functional design for tasting and enjoying wine." The team's work could eventually help us choose the right glass, and temperature, for each drink. (Of course, that probably won't fix the wine headaches, whose cause might not be what you think it is.)