(MNN) - For winemakers (and wine drinkers), a keen sense of smell is essential. Without smell, one can taste little. Now researchers have devised what they call an "electronic nose" that they say detects fruit odors more effectively than the human sense of smell and could someday be used in the winemaking industry.

Spanish and Swedish engineers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain and Sweden's University of Gävle have created an electronic nose with 32 sensors that can distinguish pears from apples, which contain similar chemical compounds called esters. The researchers said the technology could eventually be used to distinguish the quality or type of grape or recognize a wine's vintage.

Their setup bears no resemblance to an actual nose, rather it is a desktop apparatus connected to a computer.