How Much Cesium Would You Like With That Bordeaux, Sir?

geiger.wine.jpg Archaeologists have Carbon-14 dating to help them identify the age of ancient artifacts, and now European wine professionals have their own tool: Cesium-137 dating. Turns out that thanks to Chernobyl and various other Soviet underground nuke testing, all the grapes in Europe were irradiated to some degree over the last 50 years. These exposures to radiation leave such distinct signatures depending on the grape and the region that apparently they can be used to identify the vintage year and one day perhaps even the general appellation of a wine.

Read the full story at Decanter Magazine.

Posted by: Alder on June 16, 2005 11:19 AM: Share this post elsewhere Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit; Filed under: Wine News

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» Radiation in My Wine? Gulp! from Corktease

Tracked on June 17, 2005 4:01 AM

I had never paused to think about this. But nuclear activity, even far far away, leaves a radioactive imprint in the grapes (and, I am guessing, in every fruit and vegetable as well). Well, although it does not sound very appetizing, these radiation im... Read more

Comments (2)

Geoff Smith wrote:

06.16.05 at 12:41 PM

Which leads us to the ultimate question: what is the best wine to have with Chicken Kiev?

teshoo wrote:

06.17.05 at 12:21 PM

It is very interesting to see this.

My understanding is that the Rhone/SE got a pretty good dose of radiation from Chernobyl, spawning talk of a cover-up in France regarding food and wine.

Apparently the Japanese avoid these wines for this reason (this from the Iron Chef).

Dried mushrooms, which might be from anywhere in "europe," have been found with very high radiation levels... os it's good to avoid these.