Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/235941
WINEMAKING tributed in the United States through The Vintner's Vault, based in Paso Robles, Calif. Mistral cooperage, which is a subsidiary of Tonelería Nacional in Chile, showed off the Labrador retrievers the company uses for quality control. Leif Kaiser, Tonelería Nacional's commercial director, said the highly trained dogs can detect TCA levels below 0.3 nanograms per liter as well as TBA. If the wood is not right, it is immediately removed from the production chain. The company, which has a U.S. office in Sonoma, Calif., will also bring the dogs to wineries to help detect contamination in storage areas, the bottling line or wherever TCA or TBA can cause problems. The dogs spend half their time at their cooperage in Chile and the rest at customer locations. The program is proving successful at the factory, and it's popular with winemakers. Kaiser said the company plans to incorporate trained dogs at its locations in Europe, Australia and North America. Several Italian tank manufacturers like Algor and Minox had their wine tanks on display at the show. New sensor technology One of Tonelería Nacional's TCA inspection dogs sniffs stave wood. The dogs can detect levels of TCA below 0.3 ng/L. 84 W in es & V i ne s january 20 14 Part of the AROL Group of companies, FT System was another winner for innovative technology. Massimo Fedel is the firm's technical director and responsible for the development of the award-winning L.Sensor.O2. He said the device shoots a low-power, Class 1 laser through the headspace of the container to measure headspace and dissolved oxygen in a non-destructive and non-intrusive manner. The unit also detects total pressure in the container, partial CO2 pressure and dissolved CO2. The sensor helps winemakers "kick out bottles that are not sealed" correctly or See us at Unified booth #721