We just found one more good reason to conserve California's water. San Francisco-based wine experts Mardonn Chua and Alec Lee have discovered a way to turn water into actual wine in a mere 15 minutes—and without a help of a biblical miracle. Working without grapes, Chua and Lee have created a synthetic ethanol-based wine, and a subsequent winery start-up.
Ava Winery describes its product as "the world's first designer wine." Combining water and ethanol with flavor-compounds, Ava insists their wine can almost exactly mimic the taste of some of the wine world's most famous labels.
Ava's first bottles, including a wine modeled after the 1992 vintage of Dom Perignon Champagne, will retail for an affordable $50, that is, once they're available. Wine snobs are likely to remain unimpressed, but for anyone into booze, science and saving money, the first batch of Ava's innovative wine will make for a futuristic happy hour.