Scientist Puts Salt in Wine and Wine in the Blender

Nathan Myhrvold puts salt in his wine and his wine in the blender. This is the man behind the curiously epic modernist food series, including Modernist Cuisine and Modernist Cuisine at Home, who holds degrees in geophysics and space physics and PhDs in theoretical and mathematical physics among others.

As reported by Bloomberg News, Myhrvold was at a dinner party with Gina Gallo of Gallo Wine when he suggested she drop a pinch of salt into her cabernet. While some might abhor such a gesture—noting that winemakers intended the wine to be drunk the way they make it—Myhrvold insists salt highlights the savory qualities of the juice. He also believes dropping wine into a blender for 30 seconds or so speeds up the process of decanting and aeration, but is also quite gratifying for “the look on people’s faces. It is such sacrilege for wine snobs.” But his iconoclasm seems to be doing him well; he’s working with famed chef Ferran Adria on cocktails that are consumed via inhalation. [Bloomberg News]