Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/70670
IDL_Dir11 11/18/10 4:21 PM Page 1 CO VER S T OR Y Iván D.Lessner Process Solutions Inc. Process & Product Development Alcoholic & Non Alcoholic Beverage Industry Equipment Sales IDL ■ R. WAGNER: Rapid SO2, TA ■ ERBSLOEH: Fining & Treatment Agents, Yeasts, Enzymes, CelluFluxx (D.E. Replacement) ■ TRUST: Quality Hungarian Oak Barrels & Chips ■ EMD: Reflectoquant Analyzer & Kits 1164 Lee Street, White Rock, B.C. V4B 4P4 Canada Phone: (604) 538-2713 Fax: (604) 538-4517 www.idlconsulting.com As it happens Today, Crafton and Parry watch over the winery from a 32-inch screen that hangs above Parry's desk. It displays a cellar map that records the temperature, value and time of the last Brix measurement, fill-level, set points, status and the lot code of 45 stainless steel fermentation tanks as fast as the cellar crew, wire- less thermostats or the electronic probes can report them. The computer monitor depicts each stainless steel fermentor as an animated icon that shows the status of each tank. Selecting an icon retrieves up-to-date information about its contents. "A visual representation of the (winemaking) process allows me to take in everything at once," Parry says as a tank icon changes color, signaling that Crafton has inoculated the juice. Without armloads of notebooks and clipboards, Parry can fol- low fermentation from the 32-inch laboratory LCD screen. From a tablet computer, he can follow the process all the way to the shipping dock. Armed with software and controllers that drive production, the desktop and portable computers present him with a timely and comprehensive view of the 2011 vintage. "The harvest is much easier to manage with digital, graphical rep- resentations," Parry says. "It's a snapshot, a moment in time. I can see what's already happened and decide what needs to happen next. Such foresight reflects the convergence of flexible hardware and powerful software—a concept that took hold in U.S. manu- facturing more than a quarter-century ago. DATA-DRIVEN the Chateau Montelena cellar with three clipboards, a densi- tometer, sample vials and hand- drawn fermentation graphs. "We'd store the information we gathered in several places including a fermentation card and the database." Clipboards no CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT • Efficiency – Drive costs out • Performance – Maximize yield and quality • Compliance – Streamline record-keeping and reporting SureHarvest Farming MIS For Vineyards Everything in one place. longer litter wine- maker Cameron Parry's desk. In the winery, Crafton and the five-per- son cellar team enter information into a program- mable thermostat attached to each fermentation tank or a tab- let computer. They can specify a temperature Call: 831.477.7797 Visit: www.sureharvest.com 26 Wines & Vines JULY 2012 range, report a Brix measurement or record a pump over by scroll- ing down a list that appears on Bye, bye clipboards S hortly after the 2010 harvest, Matthew Crafton walked into the thermostat screen, selecting the field and entering a value. Say Parry wants to cool the Tank changes and lot sta- tus used to be recorded on a white board. tank at the end of fermenta- tion. The cellar team gathers a sample. The lab reports the re- sidual sugar has reached 0.08%. Crafton enters the value into the data- base, which alerts VINx2. The pro- duction software signals the con- trol software that the status of the tank has changed. TankNET triggers a controller to open a solenoid. Cool- ant floods the fer- mentation tank jacket, lowering the temperature of the fermented fruit to a set value. "The project is unique," Parry says, "because VINx2 and Tank- NET talk to each other." T.U. CAMERON PARRY