This AI sniffs out trouble — literally.
Luxury champagne and liquor brand Moët Hennessy announced this week it is bringing the power of artificial intelligence to bear on its grapes, detecting a pesky kind of fungus that grows on crops.
Using sensing technology on samples of grape crops, researchers trained a new AI model to recognize grapevine emissions that were previously undetectable to winemakers in the early stages.
The mold produces a “fresh mushroom aroma” which the International Viticulture and Enology Society deems “unacceptable” in any glass of dry or sparkling wine.
Winemakers in France’s Champagne region have been trying to deter the fungus since around 2005 — a maddening exercise since it can only be caught once the grapes are already on their way to becoming a crisp glass of bubbly.
Moët Hennessy, part of luxury French conglomerate LVMH, has spent millions of euros trying to solve the problem, Manual Reman, who works on R&D for the company, told the Wall Street Journal.
The storied brand partnered with an engineering company called Analog Devices and University of California, Davis researchers to come up with the new AI.
While snobs will say that “true” champagne can only be found in France, winemakers in the Golden State have been dealing with the same problem as their European colleagues.
The problem cost Cali a whopping $4 billion in 2020, UC Davis researcher Ben Montpetit told the Journal.
The wine-sniffing tech was based on research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2025, scientists there used portable gas and chemical sensors to digitize certain aromas. They created a database of smells called “smellnet” that could allow artificial intelligence to work off of a baseline of smells — and zero in on odors like the harmful fungus.
The wine industry – especially in Champagne – has been having a rough year.
Record-high heatwaves this past summer made wine there have a higher-than-usual alcohol content, BBC reported. Raging wildfires also brought heavy damage to crops.
Meanwhile, the California region has also struggled. Booze imports to Canada went down by 95 % during the 12 months ending in July, according to the Sacramento Bee. Some families are reportedly selling off their wineries because of the losses.
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