Filtration and Winery Size: Selecting an Appropriate Filtration System Glenn Curtis Widmer Wine Cellars 32nd Annual NY Wine Industry Workshop April 2nd, 2003

Reasons to Filter Financial: >Increase yields, less product disposed of. >Less settling time required allowing better tank utilization. >Up-stream filtration extends life of down-stream filters. >Higher quality, less risk exposure to wine going “bad.” Quality: >Reduce solids levels in juice before fermentation. >Better control of “stop fermentation” wines. >Microbial stability in bulk storage/aging and bottled wine. >Appearance, consumer acceptance.

Factors in Deciding to Filter or not? Know your consumer: are they well educated about wine, will they accept crystals, sediment, less than perfect clarity? Know your market: is the wine sold and consumed locally, do you have wider distribution entailing more risk? Know your wine: Alcohol %, pH, residual sugar, ML+, FSO2, Sorbate Know your comfort level for Risk!

Factors in Deciding Appropriate Filtration System Look at multiple use equipment versus single use equipment: >Plate & Frame lees filter for juice and wine recovery using perlite or D.E. >Pressure leaf filters using various grades of DE for post fermentation, post cold stability, pre-filtration before sterile filters >Filter press with cellulose filter pads, single use with different grade pads or dead plate for multi-use at same time

Factors in Deciding Appropriate Filtration System Size equipment for appropriate flow rate taking into account capital cost, labor cost and future growth. Take into account any disposal cost of used filter media. When looking at new technology to replace existing equipment, calculate IRR, NPV and payback period.

Factors in Deciding Appropriate Filtration System Take into account safety concerns using DE and associated cost (dust mask, collection systems) Decide if all of the “bells and whistles” like automatic CIP and operator controls really needed and cost effective. Take into account cost of service, repair, cost of down time to process stream.

Factors in Deciding Appropriate Filtration System Look at new “reusable” filter media options >Back-flushable cellulose pads and membrane cartridges >Can have significant cost savings implications: >cellulose pads …saw a 50% reduction in usage >membrane filter …currently on set that is 2 years old and has 1.8 million gallon throughput

Factors in Deciding Appropriate Filtration System Explore other options like cross-flow, micro-filtration, ultra-filtration, reverse osmosis. Depending on situation, may or may not be economically feasible. Look at other areas in winery needing filtration: compressed air, process water

Filtering for Sterility Considered a “must” for wines with residual sugar and mixture of ML/non-ML wines. Should test for residual malic acid at end of ML fermentation to make sure complete. Need to ascertain risk of contamination by spoilage organisms: Acetobacter, Brettanomyces and Zygosaccharomyces. Should do base line micro-plating to find out what level of risk is.

Filtering for Sterility Zygo: Extraordinarily resistant to common preservatives >Sulfur Dioxide  120 ppm free (3mg/L 3.4 pH) >Sorbic Acid mg/L >Benzoic Acid ,000 mg/L >Ethanol  18 % (v/v) >1 cell in 5 liters can cause spoilage Case in point, one large winery dumped 60,000 cs. over a 2 year period. Case in point, another large winery put 600,000 cs on hold for 3-6 months over a 2 year period and dumped 2,000 cs.

Q & A