Bottled Palate Cleanser Under Development

The song talks about putting time in a bottle, but two Cal Poly students had another idea, to develop a palate cleanser in a bottle, to be consumed between wine tastings. Under the headline, "Wine Notes: Cal Poly Alums Create 'Palate Cleansing Beverage' Aimed at Winemakers," San Luis Obsipo Tribune Reporter Janis Switzer writes:

"Five months after receiving their diplomas, most college graduates are looking for a job, looking for a place to live, and just generally looking for a direction in life."

"Not so with Andrew Macaluso and Nicole Chamberlain, who are traveling California test marketing and selling the innovative new product they developed while working toward their degrees in enology and viticulture in Cal Poly’s wine and viticulture program."

"The product they created is SanTásti, a “palate cleansing beverage” that they hope will help winemakers evaluate their wines more accurately, as well as help tasting rooms better represent their wines to often overwhelmed consumers."

"The concept is simple, but there is no other comparable product on the market right now, and Macaluso and Chamberlain have already filed for a patent."

"They’ve already started the framework for a company they plan to expand into other innovative products."

"Neither of the partners initially started in the Cal Poly wine program. Macaluso was a chemistry major and Chamberlain a biology major."

'They met during their first year in chemistry class, but two years later they decided that the lab was not for them."

"They changed majors in their junior year, and found themselves analyzing the effect of enzymes and bacteria on wine quality."

“One thing that we just decided to look at out of the blue was the quality that was assigned to the wine based on the order the wine was tested,” Macaluso explains."

"It was then that the couple saw a pattern that indicated palate fatigue played an important role on how a person evaluates wine quality."

“It was things like that that really piqued our interest,” Macaluso says."

"So one night watching television at home, they decided to try to come up with a “palate cleanser.”

You can read the rest of the article here.

Vintage 2008: What the Wine Year Brought

Globally, what were the trends for winemakers, viticulture and viniculture? News service Reuters says the focus was on greener production and an eye on production costs and consumer's pocketbooks. Under the headline, "Vintage '08? A Mixed Case of Economy and Ecology," Reuters Reporter Leslie Gevirtz wrote:

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the world of wine, vintage 2008 was a blend of economy and ecology as financial woes put the brakes on a bull run in prices and more producers went green."

"The marketers got into the green word for wine," said Alice Feiring, author of "The Battle for Wine and Love or How I saved the World from Parkerization."

"Boisset, the second-largest producer of Beaujolais Nouveau, bottled its entire 2008 harvest in plastic bottles."

"The lightweight PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles drastically cut shipping costs without affecting the young Gamay wine inside and created packaging that was "absolutely recyclable," according to a company spokesman."

"Of course, there are others that don't think the wine industry has really turned green yet, despite the rise in the number of biodynamic and organic wineries internationally."

You can read the rest of the article here.