Reno communications company KPS3 is debuting a unique invention in time for California Wine Month. The Swirl Machine was developed here in Reno as a way to showcase the Santaa Maria Valley. It's a robotic machine that pours a glass of wine, swirls it, and throws that swirl onto a piece of paper to create a unique piece of art. Anyone can go online and give it a try.
"It's a machine that really captures the spirit of what Santa Maria stands for, and that's a laid-back, unpretentious, fun attitude," said Rob Gaedtke, President and CEO of KPS3. "So the machine grabs your personality and puts it on a piece of art just for you."
When you go to the website, you're asked to select your fill level and swirl speed for your glass of wine. Then, you can watch the machine swirl it in real time. You get a digital copy to keep and a peek into your swirl personality.
"You get to watch it, you can see the whole thing happening," Gaedtke said. "We have a splash cam so you can see your swirl specifically; it throws wine on a piece of paper, captures the art and gives it right back to you."
The "wine" is not really wine - it's dyed to look like Pinot Noir, and developing the machine had its fair share of mishaps.
"Tons of them," Gaedtke said. "My hands are still stained, lots of shirts have been lost to the red dye,"
The hope is to collect a few thousand of these swirl pictures from people all over the world in the next few days. No two are alike.
"It's a bunch of Santa Maria-style snowflakes," Gaedtke said. "This idea came to be in a car ride and so when you're thinking about something that's fun, and it goes a year in the making, and then you finally get to see it, that's pretty exciting."
www.santamariavalley.com/swirl
