(Phys) - One sip of a perfectly poured glass of wine leads to an explosion of flavours in your mouth. Researchers at Aarhus University, Denmark, have now developed a nanosensor that can mimic what happens in your mouth when you drink wine. The sensor measures how you experience the sensation of dryness in the wine.

When wine growers turn their grapes into wine, they need to control a number of processes to bring out the desired flavour in the product that ends up in the wine bottle. An important part of the taste is known in wine terminology as astringency, and it is characteristic of the dry sensation you get in your mouth when you drink red wine in particular. It is the tannins in the wine that bring out the sensation that – otherwise beyond compare – can be likened to biting into an unripe banana. It is mixed with lots of tastes in the wine and feels both soft and dry.

Mini-mouth Measures the Effect of Astringency

Researchers at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre (iNANO ), Aarhus University, have now developed a nanosensor that is capable of measuring the effect of astringency in your mouth when you drink wine. To put it simply, the sensor is a kind of mini-mouth that uses salivary proteins to measure the sensation that occurs in your mouth when you drink wine. The researchers are looking at how the proteins change in the interaction with the wine, and they can use this to describe the effect of the wine.