Reductive wine can be fixed with a penny

A new video produced by the American Chemical Society claims that reductive wines can be fixed by dropping a copper penny into the glass for a few seconds.

The life hack video created for the ACS’s YouTube page encourages wine lovers who find aromas of burnt rubber or rotten eggs in their wine to drop a clean copper penny into their glass and swirl it around.

The ACS claims that the copper in the penny reacts with the sulphur compounds (known as thiols) in reductive wines. When the thiols react with the copper, an odorless compound, copper sulfide is produced, which removes the unpleasant rotten egg-like aromas in the wine.

The same effect can be achieved by stirring a silver spoon in a reductive wine. Wines with little or no exposure to oxygen during the fermentation process are described as “reductive”, while those that are overexposed to oxygen are “oxidative”.

Other life hack videos produced by the American Chemical Society tackle topics like sharpening a knife with a plate and how to check the temperature of your oven.