Wines & Vines

WINERY & VINEYARD EQUIPMENT 56 WINES&VINES February 2018 The use of precise oxygen additions to wine, juice or must has become a much more common practice at wineries as suppliers have expanded and improved their equipment. The most typical use remains micro- oxygenation to mimic barrel aging in tank with the release of a tiny amount of oxygen over time. Some of these systems can also be used as "macro-oxygenation" during primary fermentation. The Wines & Vines Product Focus feature is not intended to provide a definitive listing of all available products in a particular segment or provide any comparative analysis, but rather serve as an overview of what's new or available and also of potential interest to readers as determined by the magazine's editorial staff. PRODUCT FOCUS Micro-Ox System The latest micro-oxygenation systems are more precise and easier to use By Andrew Adams JUCLAS Part of the Italian company Enologica Vason, Juclas patented a calibrated-piston dosing sys- tem that it claims is the most precise method on the market. The company's latest device is the MicrODue Plus, which is a computer-con- trolled version of its volumetric pump oxygen doser. The device has six dispensing points that can be set for hourly, daily or monthly dosing. The device operates a piston with compressed air that pulls oxygen from a tank into a small chamber or "syringe." When the syringe is filled with sufficient air pressure for the set dose amount, the piston pushes the air down the line to a sparger in the wine tank. The MicrODue features a touchscreen control pad and constantly monitors for accurate dos- ing. The device is portable and can also be set up to run a macro-oxygenation program. Price: $12,500. vason.com ENARTIS The Enartis WIN-IQ OX system can be con- trolled through a touchscreen or via a net- work. The Windsor, Calif.-based supplier reports the updated micro-ox device em- ploys a mass-flow meter, which will auto- matically adjust to any variations in temperature and pressure. Users can run custom programs that can be updated or adjusted remotely. More than 30 analysis parameters can be downloaded, graphed and tracked. The unit can work on tank volumes from 100 to 1 million gallons. The device can be mounted on tanks and run as an individual unit or as part of a network of units. Price: Starting at $2,950. enartis.com WESTEC One of the attributes Westec Tank & Equip- ment touts about its OxBox is that the sys- tem is simple to use: It's either on or off. The device is available with four, five or eight dosing points and is designed as an economical and easy-to-use micro-oxygen- ation system. The device uses a high-preci- sion flow regulator with mechanical flow controllers to provide either constant de- livery for larger tanks or periodic dosing for smaller volumes of wine. Price: Start- ing at $5,680. westectank.com Juclas

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