Using Cesium-137 testing to find counterfeit wine

Summary

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text] RECIPES | SCHOLARS | MUSIC | EXTRAS | LINKS [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row] [metaslider id=2073] Story #5: Hidden Kitchens — Atomic Wine: The Hidden World of Counterfeit Wine In a laboratory, deep under a mile high stretch of the Alps on the French-Italian border, Philippe Hubert, a physicist at the University of Bordeaux, tests a suspect bottle of wine.“I take the bottle in the hand,” says Hubert. “ I put the bottle close to the detector. Then I close the shielding and we start to record the gamma rays. We are looking for radioactivity in the wine. Most of the time the collectors send me bottles of wine because they want to know if it is fake or not.” Maureen Downey, “wine detective” and founder of Chai Consulting wine appraisal and authentication, has a toolkit of items she uses to forensically examine bottles of wine— razor blades, magnifying glasses, jewelers loupes, flashlights, blue light. “Counterfeit wines have become a much bigger problem of late,” says Downey. “In the last year, I myself have written reports for about 5 million dollars worth of fakes.” Experts are going to greater lengths than ever before to authenticate wine. The fibers of the label paper, the tiny pits in the glass, the depth of the punt in the bottom of the bottle, all hold clues. “Fraudsters put a lot of work into trying to make their corks look distressed,” says Jancis Robinson, who writes about wine for jancisrobinson.com and The Financial Times. “It’s important that the label look like it’s been around the block a bit so they might rub it with a bit of earth or coffee grounds.” THE JEFFERSON BOTTLES “There are two ways to counterfeit wine,” says Patrick Radden Keefe. “You’re either messing with the bottle or you’re messing with the wine itself.” Keefe, a staff writer at the New Yorker Magazine, wrote a story called the “Jefferson Bottles.” The saga of the ...