Predicting Quality of Wine with Data Science and Machine Learning

Wine is the most widely consumed beverage globally, and its value is important to society. The quality of wine is significant to its consumers and producers in the current competitive market. Wine quality was determined historically by the testing done at the end. To achieve that level, one must spend a lot of money, time and follow the various procedures from the beginning to get good quality wine. Traditionally, this proved to be very expensive. However, today, data science and machine learning will allow us to predict wine’s quality.

Understanding the important data for wine quality prediction

Each person is different and has their preferences. It can be difficult to identify a quality based solely on someone’s tastes, which makes the job of wine manufacturers tough. As a result, manufacturers began to use different devices to test their products during development.

This allows them to understand wine quality better and saves time and money. This also allowed for the accumulation of a lot of data, including various parameters like the quantity and temperature of chemicals used in the production and the quality of the wine, and a chance to offer something better than the competing manufacturers.

This data can be found in several databases, including the UCL Machine Learning Repository and Kaggle. With the success of Data Science and ML techniques over the past decade, many efforts have been made to determine wine quality using the data available. This allows one to tune the parameters that directly impact the wine’s quality.

The manufacturer can then tune different parameters during the development process to improve the wine’s quality. This could also lead to wines with multiple flavours, which may eventually result in a new brand. It is therefore important to analyze the key parameters that influence wine quality. Machine Learning, in addition to human efforts, can be used to identify the most critical parameters that influence wine quality.

Data-set’s features to consider while Predicting

A variety of chemical properties affect the quality of the wine, and these properties can have an impact on its flavour, aroma, and taste. Winemaking is an art form, but it can be very scientific if you think about it. Data science courses can help understand how to extract the data and use them to distinguish between great and mediocre insights.

Let’s be savvier with our wine vocabulary!

Wines can contain different amounts of alcohol, sugars, and salts from mineral or organic acids. Phenolic compounds, pigments, and nitrogenous substances.

Acidity is the quality of the wine’s freshness, tartness, and sourness. Wine grapes contain three primary acids: tartaric acid, malic acid, and citric acids. These acids are rated based on how well they balance out the sweetness and bitter components, such as tannins.

Fixed acidity

The measurement of titratable acidity or fixed acidity is the total amount of titratable acid and free hydrogen ions in wine. A litmus paper can help determine if a solution is acidic/basic. Tartaric (malic), citric, and carbonic acids are the most commonly used titratable acids. These acids are found in grapes naturally or created during fermentation.

Volatile acidity

Bacteria cause the most volatile acidity in wine, which creates acetic acid. This acid gives vinegar its distinctive flavour and aroma. Volatile acidity can indicate spoilage or errors in manufacturing processes. This could be caused by wine being exposed to the air, damaged grapes, and so forth. This allows acetic acid bacteria to thrive and produce unpleasant tastes and odours. This is often something wine experts can tell by simply smelling the wine.

Citric Acid

Citric acid can be found in small amounts in grapevines. It is used as a preservative in wines to enhance acidity, add flavour or prevent ferric oxides. You can add it to wine, increase acidity, or give it a fresh flavour. However, excessive addition can cause a loss of taste, and nobody will love that!

Sugars Residual

Residual Sugar, or RS, is the natural grape sugars left over after fermentation has ended (whether intentionally or not). Wine grape juice starts extremely sweet, and the yeasts then ferment that sugar.

Winemaking is characterised by yeast converting all sugar to alcohol, making it dry. A few times, not the entire sugar is fermented by yeast, and there may be some sweetness left.

Chloride

A wine’s “saltiness” is often a sign of how much it contains chlorides. This is usually determined by its geographical origin, cultivation methods, and grape type. Saltiness is undesirable, and a wine with the right amount of salt can be more savoury.

Density

It is also known as specific gravity. You can use it for determining the alcohol content of wines. The sugar in juice is converted to ethanol by fermentation, and carbon dioxide acts as waste gas. You can monitor this step to ensure that the quality of the wine is optimal. Higher densities are mostly found in sweeter wines. Also, such wines are somewhat tough to digest.

pH

pH is the power of hydrogen. It measures the hydrogen ions’ concentration in the solution. Solutions with pH values below 7 are generally considered acidic. Some of the most powerful acids can be found close to 0. Solutions with a pH value above 7 are called basic or alkaline. Water has a pH value of 7 since it is neither acid nor base.

Alcohol

You don’t need stats to understand that alcohol is the key to a great party, as alcoholic beverages have been around for so long. Consuming small amounts of alcohol can give you warm fuzzy feelings and make you more social, but higher doses may cause you to pass out.

Conclusion

Industry 4.0 has made Maths, Statistics, and Artificial Intelligence a priority. Wine companies are no exception. Companies are hunting for new ways to improve the quality and safety of wine while keeping customer satisfaction at their core. Traditional wine tasting and testing methods can be expensive and time-consuming. Data Science and Machine Learning Techniques allow us to accurately predict the quality of wine, thereby reducing time and costs. Great Learning offers various data science courses. You should consider checking out the data science engineering course, which can help you understand the various practical applications of Data Science.