The wine needs to be under 10 NTU. We normally recommend filtering first, and then doing RO. If we are adjusting alcohol, just prior to bottling is the best time, as you only need to filter once. RO is normally recirculating back to the same tank.
RO removes an alcohol and water mix. The water component is then added back to the wine. This is a simple process and reversible after processing and before the water being added back. The wine can be “sweet spotted” just before water addition to determine the alcohol concentration that produces the best wine.
VA wines will likely take several passes in order to reduce VA levels to optimum, the process recycles into the same tank, we usually pull from bottom, return to top in order to make sure the tank doesn't have stratification. Cooling is needed to keep wine temperature at between 15 and 20 C, which is
Normally, we don’t RO juice, as fluids need to be low turbidity to RO, and juice would need to be filtered prior to processing. We normally do wine adjustments/ taint removals post fermentation.
The quality of the filtered Lees is very good, as long as the quality of the unfiltered Lees is very good. We recommend filtering right after racking, so that the Lees hasn’t started to ferment. You can expect a slightly lower brix compared to freerun juice, but the same phenolic taste.
For the majority of wines, we recommend right after filtration and before bottling. For wines targeted for ph reduction, we recommend before aging as the lower ph wines will have more free SO2, and be more protected from VA, oxidizing, and other faults.
Crossflow, RO then STARS is the preferred order. We recommend doing as close to bottling as possible.
One of the main selling points of Crossflow is the efficiency of the system and its ability to handle higher turbidities and produce bottle ready wines in a single pass. Wines do not need to be pre-filtered. If wines are un-racked, we normally start filtration off the racking valve, and then complete the filtration from