Can I use near-infrared spectroscopy to authenticate wine bottles in my cellar?
Hello there! I'm Dr. Vinifera, but you can call me Vinny. Ask me your toughest wine questions, from the fine points of etiquette to the science of winemaking. And don't worry, I'm no wine snob—you can also ask me those "dumb questions" you're too embarrased to ask your wine geek friends! I hope you find my answers educational, empowering and even amusing. And don't forget to check out my most asked questions and my full archives for all my Q&A classics.
Dear Dr. Vinny,
I have heard about a technology called near-infrared spectroscopy that can be used to identify and authenticate a wine without opening the bottle. Could I use it to verify some rare bottles that have been in our cellar for 40-plus years?
—Loretta, Sausalito, Calif.
Dear Loretta,
Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is indeed some exciting technology. In the simplest terms, it works by measuring the way electromagnetic waves go through or bounce off a substance. Those waves come from the near-infrared spectrum, so they aren’t visible to the human eye.
Different substances have unique near-infrared absorption signatures, which makes the technology useful for identification and authentication. The scientific and medical communities put it to many wonderful uses, from analyzing pharmaceuticals to detecting the amount of gluten in grain.
While NIRS certainly holds promise for identifying wines, we’re years away from the technology being available to consumers. At some point, someone would have needed to open a bottle of wine identical to the ones you have in your cellar to get a baseline near-infrared signature. Then you would need to get a sample of your wine safely out of a bottle and compare the two. NIRS equipment is also expensive and requires specialized expertise.
I checked in with Nick Pegna, the global head of wine and spirits at the auction house Sotheby’s, to see if this technology is available to auction houses. The answer is not yet.
“It has huge potential,” he explains, “as long as producers are happy to share their wines’ ‘signatures,’ so that the rest of the trade can use those to identify the wines later in life.”
He adds that applying the technology to wine would necessitate figuring out how a sample can be safely taken without comprising the quality of the bottle.
Currently, wine auctioned at Sotheby’s typically has a clear, well-documented paper trail to guarantee its provenance. As Pegna points out, that’s important because even an authentic wine can be damaged by improper storage, especially hot or dry cellar conditions.
—Dr. Vinny
