Physicist Richard Feynman said that “if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire Universe”. It is the stuff of physics, chemistry, geology, psychology and the ferment of life itself. Indeed, viticulture, oenology and wine have long fascinated scientists, from Alexander Fleming and Louis Pasteur to Galileo Galilei, who described wine as “sunlight, held together by water”. Vineyards and wineries are, after all, laboratories in which the fruit of the grapevine Vitis vinifera is biochemically transformed, by sunlight, rain, soils, precision, judgement, time and technology, into a potentially sublime elixir. So, here we raise a glass to some of the adventurous scientists — including a Nobel-prizewinning astrophysicist, a group of engineers and a neuroscientist — who, with exactitude and flair, have made waves in the wine world.

Maipenrai, Canberra District, Australia

One of the starriest viticulturalists has to be astrophysicist Brian Schmidt, who runs the 1.1-hectare Maipenrai vineyard near Canberra. Schmidt's work, observing type Ia supernovae at distances of more than 5 billion light years (1,533 megaparsecs), helped to prove the accelerating expansion of the Universe — and led to a share in the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. His plot, planted 12 years before that win with six Pinot Noir clones, now produces some 3,000 bottles of Maipenrai wine a year. Schmidt's sold-out 2009 vintage had, in his own words, “lovely aromas of plums mixed with forest floor”, a “rich, slightly savoury palate” and — not unlike the astrophysicist's ever-expanding findings on the day job — “a long life ahead of it, gaining complexity”.

Lethbridge, Geelong, Australia

For 10 years, neuroscientist Ray Nadeson worked on the pain-relieving properties of neurosteroids at Monash University in East Victoria, Australia. In 2003, he left to focus on wine. With partner and former medical researcher Maree Collis and pharmaceutical executive Adrian Thomas, Nadeson has created a 3,000-case winery in Geelong. Lethbridge produces organic, biodynamic wines with a European accent, from varieties including Pinot Noir, Sangiovese and Chardonnay. Nadeson constructed the naturally ventilated buildings of the winery itself from straw bales. Lethbridge's 2008 Mietta Pinot Noir, according to wine writer Jamie Goode, has a “taut, fine, spicy, aromatic nose” and a “rich, concentrated, fine-grained palate ... with good acidity and beautiful focus”.

Ridge, Santa Cruz Mountains, California

One of California's most famous wineries, Ridge was launched in 1959 when four scientists at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) reopened the nineteenth-century Monte Bello winery. Those four were engineer Howard Zeidler; David Bennion, who worked with magnetic systems; Charles Rosen, long-time head of SRI's Robotics Division; and pioneering computer engineer Hewitt Crane, who had collaborated with John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Bennion made the wines until 1969, when philosopher Paul Draper took over. In the 1970s, Ridge showed the world the depth and complexity possible in Californian Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2009 Monte Bello — the winery's flagship wine — is characterized by Draper as having a “blackberry, red currant, wet stone” nose and a richly textured palate with “minerality, elegant chalky structure and firm acidity”.

Domaine de Vens-le-Haut, Savoie, France

Georges Siegenthaler is on a mission to develop micro-cuvées — limited-production, exceptional wines, made as if in a laboratory. After a career as a biochemist at the University of Geneva's faculty of medicine, Siegenthaler established Domaine de Vens-le-Haut (DVH) in France's Rhône-Alpes region of Savoie in 2002. His watchword is that good wine is made in the vineyard, not the cellar. So although he is serious about alternative methods of fermentation and flavours, 'clean' viticulture is his passion. In particular, he and his team are working on alternative treatments for common vine mildews; the conventional one, copper sulphate, accumulates in soil in doses that are toxic to wildlife. Siegenthaler notes that the DVH Mondeuse noire, the great red varietal of the region, is dark ruby in colour “with black berry fruits ... and spicy notes”, a dense structure and “gentle tannins in the finish”.

Domodimonti Società Agricola, Le Marche, Italy

Organic chemist Francesco Bellini — who helped to develop the first compound anti-HIV drug to be made commercially, Epivir (3TC) — is a self-made man. A mid-1960s migrant to Canada from the Marche region of Italy, he has since authored or co-authored more than two dozen patents. After setting up pharmaceuticals company BioChem Pharma, Bellini began to build Domodimonti Società Agricola, a winery in Montefiore dell'Aso, Marche, in 2004. Bellini sees wine-making as the most ancient form of biochemistry. His 'natural wines' are based on sustainable practice, such as hand-picking the grapes and banning additives that enhance mouth-feel or colour. Domodimonti's 2008 Il Messia, made from Montepulciano and Merlot, is a deep ruby red with real biochemical verve — fruity, “powerful and fleshy”, as the winery puts it, with “empyreumatic notes and anise”.