WINEM a KING
W&V: How do you respond to critics, including some winemakers, who say that filtration strips too much away from a wine? Karlsen: I don't necessarily agree that it strips out any flavor from the wine, but even if I accept for the sake of argument that it does, for me, the quality benefits so far outweigh losing a small amount of flavor that it would be worth it. Would I lose 1% of flavor to avoid a cloudy wine or Brettanomyces? Yes! I think it's also important to note that very minute amounts of sediment seriously affect the flavor, purity and character of fine wine. This is why we rack, decant old wines and riddle Cham- pagne. Absolute clarity is absolutely essential for fine wine. If you don't filter, you must do several extra rackings or use fining agents such as Isinglass or gelatin, which noticeably strip flavor. As an aside, it's hell to filter. I wouldn't do this if I didn't think the customer gets a better product, a better wine across the board. Period. Cloudy, re-fermented wines suck.
A resident of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Laurie Daniel has been a journalist for more than 25 years. She has been writing about wine for publications for nearly 15 years and has been a Wines & Vines contributor since 2006.
COMPANY AFTEK Inc.
Criveller California Corp. Della Toffola USA
Domnick Hunter Process Filtration - North America
Gusmer Enterprises GW Kent Inc.
Koch Membrane Systems Pacific Winemaking LLC Pall Corp.
Prospero Equipment Corp. RLS Equipment Co. Inc. Scott Laboratories Inc.
Scott Laboratories Ltd. (Canada) Transition Equipment Co. VA Filtration USA
Valley Pipe & Supply Vintners Supply Co. Winesecrets Winetech LLC
Crossflow Filtration Suppliers PHONE
American Tartaric Products Inc. Begerow USA Inc.
WEBSITE
(585) 458-7550 aftekfilters.com (707) 836-6840 americantartaric.com (703) 673-1160 begerow.com (707) 431-2211 criveller.com (707) 544-5300 dellatoffola.it
(805) 604-3400 parker.com/processfiltration (559) 485-2692 gusmerenterprises.com (734) 572-1300 gwkent.com
(888) 677-5624 kochmembrane.com (503) 419-7942 pacificwinemaking.com (866) 905-7255 pall.com/foodandbev.asp (914) 769-6252 prosperocorp.biz (609) 965-0074 rlsequipment.com (707) 765-6666 scottlab.com (905) 839-9463 scottlabsltd.com
(707) 537-7787 transitionequipment.com (707) 552-2616 vafiltration.com (559) 233-0321 valleypipe.com (800) 366-6809 vintnerssupply.com (888) 656-5553 winesecrets.com (707) 257-2080 winetech.us
For more on crossflow filtration suppliers, see Wines & Vines' 2011 Buyer's Guide in print or online at winesandvinesbuyersguide.com. Data above current as of July 25, 2011.
3M Purification Inc. (formerly CUNO Incorporated)
Solutions for All Aspects of Wine Filtration
For decades, 3M Purification (formerly CUNO Incorporated) has focused on providing high performance yet economical solutions to demanding wine filtration challenges. Our efforts have resulted in numerous innovative products, such as the Zeta Plus™ multi-zone depth filter, the LifeASSURE™ BA series final membrane filter and the LifeASSURE™ BLA membrane prefilter.
Our spirit of innovation, now combined with the advanced materials science of 3M Company, has resulted in the LifeASSURE BNA series PES membrane based final filter for maximized final membrane throughput. 3M Purification is in the forefront by offering complete, integrated filtration solutions to the wine industry including bottling membranes, prefilters, particle control filters, and clarification filters, as well as filter housings and automated integrity test devices. All are designed from the ground up to ensure seamless and economical operation.
3M Purification Inc., 400 Research Parkway, Meriden, CT 06450 U.S.A. Tel: 800-243-6894, 203-237-5541
Fax: 203-238-8977 3M is a trademark of 3M Company.
Zeta Plus and LifeASSURE are trademarks of 3M Company used under license. © 2011 3M Company. All rights reserved.
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