Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/137110
WINEMAKING In the Hunter Valley we don't seem to have any difficult varieties to filter. Thompson: Pinot Noir is notoriously difficult to filter. That said, we do not have any issues with the cross flow. Jones: Pinot has the lowest flow rates through the filter due to the colloidal structure of the wine. We find temperature has a large effect on flow rates, and we will filter at cellar temperature if we can, rather than cold. Large: Pinot Noir seems to be the hardest. Flow rates are more than half compared with Sauvignon Blanc. We think this is a combination of higher protein (Pinot Noir not protein stabilized) and the various polymers within the wine. We tend to find that a light egg white fining greatly increases the ability to filter difficult wines. What new ideas and developments would you like to see from suppliers/ manufacturers to improve current filtration regimes? Thompson: While we don't involve ourselves with lees filtration, this is an area that can be improved for bigger wineries. While I have not used a cross flow for this application, the processes I have been involved with in the past were very slow, clumsy and detrimental in quality to juice that was already of low potential quality. In the end, any form of filtration that can be proven to have the least impact on wine while achieving the desired outcome will win out. Jones: Bring down the cost of juice lees cross-flow filters. Large: Some of the new technology around high-solids filtration is looking attractive. A one-stop machine that can filter juice, juice lees, stabilized wine and finished wine lees at a high rate would be the ultimate. How has the introduction of cross-flow filtration changed the working philosophy of the cellar in regards to planning? Do you operate on a 24-hour basis? If so, what fail-safe procedures are in place? Crowe: No. When I do cross flow I use a mobile service. Thompson: While we have no need to run 24 hours in the winery, our cross flow will shut down when wine supply becomes an issue and can be set to shut down after an entered volume. The cross flow is also programmed to take a certain course of action in the case of extreme blocking and will shut down if that action cannot be taken. Having said all that, there is still no fail-safe for operator, leaking racking doors or wine hose issues. Jones: Yes, we happily operate our cross flow 24 hours and over the weekends if we need to. This virtually eliminates time pressure with our filtration program. We use rubber hoses, back-flow preventers, and we installed double block and bleed valves on the inlet and outlet. Large: It has drastically reduced the amount of physical filtering we do and the amount of time in which a cellar hand is busy dealing directly with filtration. We don't operate it 24 hours without a cellar hand onsite, mainly due to the fact that we are using flexible wines and we're not 100% confident in them. We have looked into automated float level alarms, solenoid valves and fixed lines, but we haven't gone down that road as of yet. We have no issues around the technology in the machines to be able to do it; it is just the winery environment we are unsure of. Do you think winemakers are embracing the newer filtration technologies? Or should this be addressed with more You Know Wine We Know Wine Filtration call: 404-772-8771 FOOD DIAGNOSTICS 'Ensuring quality from vine to wine' Providing membrane filtration systems for juice and wine products - clarification, component separation, and concentration. GEA Filtration GEA Process Engineering Inc. 1600 O'Keefe Road, Hudson WI 54016 Phone: +1 715 386 9371, Fax: +1 715 386 9376 gea-pe.us@gea.com, www.geafiltration.com RX monaco Wine & beverage testing kits available: Acetic Acid Ammonia Copper Ethanol Glucose/Fructose Iron RX monza Lactic Acid Malic Acid Potassium Total Antioxidant Status Total Sulphite (TS02) Randox Food Diagnostics, 515 Industrial Boulevard, Kearneysville, West Virginia, 25430 T +1 304 728 2890 F +1 304 728 1890 E enquiries@randoxfooddiagnostics.com I www.randoxfooddiagnostics.com 40 W in e s & V i ne s J U LY 2 013 quarter bw ad Wines_Vines buyersguide 2013.indd 1 8/10/2012 11:27:42 AM AV1237 Food Diagnostics - Wines and Vines - Wine APR13.indd 1 22/04/2013 12:27