An Infrared Laser Sensor for Monitoring Gas-Phase CO in the Headspace of Champagne Glasses under Wine Swirling Conditions.

In wine tasting, tasters commonly swirl their glasses before inhaling the headspace above the wine. However, the consequences of wine swirling on the chemical gaseous headspace inhaled by tasters are barely known. In champagne or sparkling wine tasting, starting from the pouring step, gas-phase carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main gaseous species that progressively invades the glass headspace.

How Does Gas-Phase CO Evolve in the Headspace of Champagne Glasses?

The chemical space perceived by a consumer of champagne or other sparkling wines is progressively modified all along tasting. Real-time monitoring of gas-phase CO concentration was performed, through a CO-diode laser sensor, along a two-dimensional array of nine points in the headspace of three types of glasses poured with champagne. Two original glasses with distinct headspace volumes were compared with the standard INAO tasting glass.

Widely-Tunable Quantum Cascade-Based Sources for the Development of Optical Gas Sensors.

Spectroscopic techniques based on Distributed FeedBack (DFB) Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) provide good results for gas detection in the mid-infrared region in terms of sensibility and selectivity. The main limitation is the QCL relatively low tuning range (~10 cm) that prevents from monitoring complex species with broad absorption spectra in the infrared region or performing multi-gas sensing. To obtain a wider tuning range, the first solution presented in this paper consists of the use of a DFB QCL array.

Monitoring gas-phase CO in the headspace of champagne glasses through combined diode laser spectrometry and micro-gas chromatography analysis.

During Champagne or sparkling wine tasting, gas-phase CO and volatile organic compounds invade the headspace above glasses, thus progressively modifying the chemical space perceived by the consumer. Gas-phase CO in excess can even cause a very unpleasant tingling sensation perturbing both ortho- and retronasal olfactory perception. Monitoring as accurately as possible the level of gas-phase CO above glasses is therefore a challenge of importance aimed at better understanding the close relationship between the release of CO and a collection of various tasting parameters.

Challenges in the design and fabrication of a lab-on-a-chip photoacoustic gas sensor.

The favorable downscaling behavior of photoacoustic spectroscopy has provoked in recent years a growing interest in the miniaturization of photoacoustic sensors. The individual components of the sensor, namely widely tunable quantum cascade lasers, low loss mid infrared (mid-IR) waveguides, and efficient microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones are becoming available in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible technologies. This paves the way for the joint processes of miniaturization and full integration.