After measuring cesium 137 radioactivity levels to test the age of wine, the glass in vintage wine bottles is now being tested by particle acceleration. Just like works of art, some wine is now undergoing advanced testing to establish its authenticity. This explains why London-based The Antique Wine Company specializing in the international fine wine trade has asked ARCANE to find a way of assessing the age of some of the 10,000 bottles that the company buys or sells annually on behalf of its customers. The company wants to offer its customer base a new authentication service for vintage wine. The Atelier Régional de Caractérisation par Analyse Nucléaire Elémentaire (ARCANE, regional workshop for characterization by nuclear element analysis) is managed by ADERA (Association pour le Développement de l'Enseignement et des Recherches en Aquitaine, association for the development of education and research in Aquitaine), which has signed a cooperation agreement with CNRS-University of Bordeaux I.
ARCANE analyzes the emitted X-rays when bottles are placed under an ion beam generated by the particle accelerator at AIFIRA (Applications Interdisciplinaires de Faisceaux d'Ions en Région Aquitaine, platform for cross-disciplinary ion beam applications in the Aquitaine Region). Thus researchers can check the age and origin of the bottles and authenticate the vintage, without opening the bottle. The results for the glass are then compared with ARCANE's certified database, using data from the analysis of the glass from 80 bottles of red Bordeaux wine dating from the nineteenth century to today, and for the most part fine wines from the Saint Emilion or Médoc regions.
Content dating also pushes the boundaries of the cesium 137 radioactivity technique, which cannot be used to date wine made before 1950. The ten-year agreement signed last spring between The Antique Wine Company and ARCANE initially covers the analysis of 160 bottles from the greatest châteaux and from the wine cellars of the London-based company. A large share of the data will then be fed into the ARCANE database. In November 2008, a second phase will begin with the setup of an independent company under French law called Vincent SARL, which will be offering expert sales and marketing services.
