Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/1007939
58 WINES&VINES August 2018 WINEMAKER INTERVIEW Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to take your wine from its pre-bottling, fully expressive state and transport it into the bottle without any sacrifices? The key to this is diminishing DO prior to bottling and taking every step along the way to diminish TPO. There are two types of bottling and filling technology: mechanical and electro-pneumatic counter-pressure lines. Dundee Mobile Bottlers owns and operates a 20-spout electro-pneu- matic counter-pressure line. It's a newer and more advanced technology that utilizes head pressure in the filler bowl to protect the wine. It also allows for bottling of sparkling wines without loss of carbonation. All mobile bottling lines are capable of sparging the bottle with inert gas to diminish the oxygen content within the bottle. Mechani- cal filling-line technology creates a light vac- uum on the bottle, pulling the inert gas and the remaining oxygen from the bottle into the filling bowl while filling. After the initial sparge, the newer electro-pneumatic counter- pressure filling valves pull a vacuum on the bottle at the filler bowl twice prior to filling. Each evacuation is expelled external to the filling bowl, followed by a sparge. The net ef- fect is significantly lower DO, leading to re- duced bottle shock, lower necessary free SO 2 levels at bottling and wines which show better sooner, without sacrificing ageability. I have found that screwcap-finished wines have a greater potential to pick up increased levels of DO versus corks because of the higher volume of head space between the wine and the closure. That usually requires a nitrogen drip post-filling to mitigate DO pickup when bottling with mechanical filling valves. Electro- pneumatic filling technology eliminates the necessity and extra cost of the nitrogen drip because the DO pickup is so low. Therefore, careful consideration is necessary as to how much additional free SO 2 is necessary to miti- gate DO pickup. Cork-finished wines have a smaller head- space and require a vacuum to be pulled prior to inserting the cork, further diminishing the amount of potential DO pickup during bottling. Natural cork closures contain a small amount of air within the cork, which slowly finds its way into the wine. Another consideration of DO pickup and the bottling process, especially with screw- caps, is the travel distance along the bottle conveyor between the filler and the capper and the timing of the placement of the screw- cap onto the bottle prior to the final applica- tion. The sooner the screwcap is applied, the lower the DO. You need to know the limitations and pa- rameters of the equipment when bottling your wines. Research, measure and understand the DO pickup levels, and take this into consider- ation with the closure. 715 S. Guild Avenue • Lodi, CA 95240 • 209-370-1616 info@watermarklabels.com • www.watermarklabels.com Complimentary press proofs Unlimited Capabilities | Variable data | Custom die-cutting