Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/998810
July 2018 WINES&VINES 37 TASTING ROOM FOCUS your wine into an odorless, bright, shiny, crystal-clear, unbuffed wine glass, and at the same time reduc- ing the chances your employees will go to the ER with cuts from broken glass. I recently worked at a Napa County winery that had hard water with so much silica it required a reverse-osmosis (RO) filter system and mixed bed deionization (DI removes all minerals). Otherwise, silica-laced hard water would de- stroy their filters and other equip- ment. After washing a rack of glasses in purified water using a standard lever down dishwasher, when you pulled a clean, dry wine glass from the rack it looked as if you had just taken it out of the box, brand new. While working to open a tast- ing room in a Central Coast resort, I faced the problem of choosing between hot (120° F) softened 700 ppm TDS water or room tempera- ture (70°F) 426 ppm TDS feed water for the glasswasher. The glasswasher using softened hot water left a fog on the wine glasses that required a couple of hours a day to buff using steam from hot water. Not a profitable use of a couple hours a day of labor. After a great deal of testing, we decided to install a reverse-osmo- sis system to reduce the TDS of the water to as low as we possibly could (15 ppm TDS) to improve the glasswasher efficiency and effectiveness. When the resort engineers and I presented this solution to management, they asked the obvious questions: "What does it cost us to wash and buff a rack of glasses now, and what will it cost if we use an ef- ficient RO filter system?" I needed to understand how glasswasher efficiency and cost were measured. The resort had installed a Hobart LXeR glass- washer that consumes 0.6 gallons of water per cycle, with 180°F heat booster. I contacted Hobart and asked if they had research on what it costs to wash a rack of glasses. A few weeks later, the research appeared in my inbox. The re- search was conducted in locations that wash 20 to 30 racks per hour, 10 hours a day, seven days per week. Our own analysis included the cost of installing a well-designed RO filter system. An RO system will produce nearly purified water (15 ppm TDS) on the side of the membrane that serves as the feed water for the glasswasher. The brine side is equal to one-half of each gallon run through the RO filter process. There is an addi- tional cost for the brine, or gray water, but it can be used to water plants. You reduce the amount of soap needed per wash because nearly purified water doesn't need as much soap to clean the glasses, lowering costs. The Hobart LXeR doesn't use sanitizer because the rinse is at 180°F. When we included a slightly higher per kilowatt-electric cost and the gray water brine, the cost per rack holding 20 wine glasses went from $1.85 to $1.90. We did not bother with the reduction in soap cost. A fully loaded labor hour at $14 an hour is $20 an hour. Each hour you do not buff glasses is worth $20, not including the lack of cut fingers from broken glass. If you avoid a trip to the ER for stitches, you could pay for a brand-new glasswasher. Every tasting room is different There are more than 4,391 winer- ies in California and more than 9,600 nationally. The variation in feed water is all over the map. Some areas have harder water than others. But it is well worth the effort to pour wine into crys- tal-clear, odorless glasses that don't need buffing. No, we have not been able to get all the lipstick off every glass. So yes, before using, you will need to look at each and every wine glass and wipe off the small amount of lipstick residue that is left on 1% of them after a 180°F purified water rinse. What do they make lipstick out of anyway? John Stallcup has worked in the wine industry for more than 20 years, serving as the vice president of marketing for The Wine Group and consulting for a variety of wine companies. He is currently direc- tor of wine hospitality at the Allegretto Vineyard Resort in Paso Robles, Calif. Dana Nafziger, the president of the com- mercial laundry, glass washing and housekeeping services provider Aqua Systems, contributed to this article. TANNINS MEGAZYME ASSAY KITS YEAST NUTRIENTS YEAST & BACTERIA