Smart Bungs

The aim of this project is to create a ‘smart bung' by embedding a conventional wine barrel bung with optical fibres, through which different indicators of wine quality can be monitored quickly and cheaply.

The smart bung seals the barrel of wine, and the optical fibres within it allow monitoring of the wine without the need to open the barrel, which has the potential to contaminate the wine, as is the case with other technologies. Via a pilot study we aim to demonstrate the smart bung concept, and prove that multiple parameters can be measured simultaneously and in real time by this technology.

The project is a true partnership: it is being led by Professor Taylor of the University of Adelaide School of Agriculture, Food and Wine (SAFW) located within the Wine Innovation Cluster (WIC), and Professor Monro of the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing (IPAS). SAFW are responsible for the chemistry aspects of the research including chemical specific sensors and linking groups for their attachment to fibres whilst IPAS are responsible for development of the fibres themselves as well as the light-based technological requirements.

Progress and future research: The smart bung technology development is advancing well; we are exploring a powerful new microfluidic approach, which, when integrated with our fibre sensing platform, should give us the capacity to measure a broad range of key wine parameters.