Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/101495
WINEMAKING Now he puts all his wines through this filter���the only one he uses except for lees filtering and final polishing before bottling. Simi bought a 12-unit system but started with only eight cartridges. Reeder���s crew now uses all 12 units for everything from a small amount of late-harvest Riesling to the winery���s 200,000-case Chardonnay production. Reeder admits that his staff has developed considerable expertise after long experience with the system. ���It���s complicated to use,��� he says. Simi is part of Constellation Brands, and other arms of that wine giant use other crossflow system brands. Reeder has compared his results to them and believes he���s made the right choice. ���All-in-one filtering��� Another happy crossflow customer is Randle Johnson of The Hess Collection, which like Simi makes both high-volume and limited-production wines. Hess has used crossflow filtration for five or six years, Johnson says. Before committing to a system, he attended a number of seminars and did considerable research. ���At the time, there were only three vendors; now there are at least five.��� Among crossflow setups he visited was that of Don Sebastiani & Sons, which had a 20-element system, necessary because the process was so slow. That has since improved. ���It���s all-in-one filtering. We use it for everything,��� Johnson says. One use is on wines with residual sugar. He acknowledged that you have to filter these wines to take out yeast and bacteria to prevent refermentation. He found that crossflow is very gentle (he says ���it doesn���t affect the structured wine chemistry���), and the system is reliable enough to run 24 hours a day without close supervision. Nevertheless, he thinks the mobile services are a good alternative. ���Mobile bottlers started crossflow filtering as a service combined with bottling. It helps prevent clogging expensive cartridge bottling filters. They have to know what they���re doing.��� One issue Johnson has uncovered is that gum Arabic, used to give a better mouthfeel to some wines, clogs the pores of crossflow filters. ���We rarely use it, but when we do, we filter with DE.��� Like Simi���s Reeder, Johnson prefers the Pall filters. ���They���re more expensive, but better. They come from the pharmaceutical industry, where there���s no fooling around.��� Vendors speak Gusmer Enterprises has sold Bucher Vaslin crossflow filtration systems for 10 years and also makes filter media as well as selling that produced by others. Dave Gusmer says their big appeal is the one-step filtration process without paper or other filter media. He says his company has sold 60 units in the past few years, with sales rebounding after the economy took a hit in 2008 and 2009. He thinks there are about 300 in use in the North American wine business. Gusmer says that wineries making more than 5,000 cases per year are candidates for buying systems; below that, he recommends mobile services. Big and higher end wineries buy multiple systems. Duckhorn, for example, has three. He says the most popular unit is the FX3, which is suitable for 300-1,000 gallons per hour. The FX1 offers flow rates beginning at 150 gallons per hour. These units are fully automated, making operation straightforward and friendly for smaller and medium-sized wineries that require such processes. They might require one chemical wash per day in typical use. Gusmer also can deliver FX5 and FX6 with flow rates of 750-3,000 gallons per hour, FX 100-400 Cross Flow Filters for flow rates from 1,500 to 15,000 gallons per hour and additional capacity from additional filtration units. Gusmer also can supply filters that can tolerate high solids or even juice lees. Problem solving Bruce Scott of Scott Laboratories pointed out that while crossflow filters were formerly used just for clarification, wineries and mobile filtration providers use their crossflow units for a variety of functions from arresting fermentations to general clarification and pre-bottling filtrations. ���Crossflow filtration is also extremely useful in problem solving such as with Brettanomyces and other microbial issues.��� He advises, though, that while crossflow units are more common than ever, they are not necessarily replacing the more traditional technologies. ���This is true at both large and small wineries.��� He added, ���And while crossflow is more economical than previously, even wineries that cannot afford their own crossflow filter can take advantage of the many mobile crossflow services available.��� Scott said that while in early years crossflow filters had very high energy Steve Reeder of Simi Winery in Healdsburg found the first batch of wine he filtered with his Pall filter in 2005 saved enough expensive wine to pay for the filter. consumption, Velo���s newer units are more efficient than at any time in the past. Scott Laboratories sells Velo crossflow systems. Specifically developed for wine clarification, the Velo TMC offers compactness, ease of operation and high quality filtration. The concept behind the system is ���set and forget.��� Automated cycles for filtration and cleaning allow it to virtually run without an operator. The savings on filtrations are not limited to labor as media costs are also minimized compared to pad or DE filtrations. The units have been designed to accommodate virtually any number of elements to increase desired capacity. Units in standard production include 1-, 2-, 3-, 7-, 14-, 28- and 56-element designs. Each element has a maximum flow rate of 160 gallons per hour. Therefore a three-element machine could have a maximum flow rate of up to 480 gallons (1,800 liters) per hour. Scott said, ���We have found increasing interest in modular crossflow filter design. In recent years virtually all Velo customers have opted for modular designs where capacities can be enlarged by adding modules.��� Winemakers more comfortable GEA Filtration offers crossflow membrane filtration systems and replacement membranes for the wine industry. ���It���s a superior process solution or product quality compared to other technologies,��� says spokesperson Cara Gardner. ���Crossflow provides repeatable filtration performance with a more efficient ROI compared to no filtration at all or traditional sheet/ pad and disposable products for larger volumes of wine processing.��� She says that final clarification has made the widest penetration into the wine industry. Gardner notes that the wine industry (Continued on page 55.) Win es & Vin es JA N UA RY 20 13 53