There are several important factors with regards to processing smoke taint affected wines. The first factor is processing at the appropriate time, which is as late as possible. For a red, well past ML fermentation, but prior to going into oak. For a white, just prior to going into bottle. The second factor is treating
Yes you can, and we have extensive experience doing this. This is an easy process that can significantly increase the quality of a wine that is light in flavour and body.
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.
Decreasing the alcoholic content of your wine can have a profound effect on quality. The market is moving to wines with alcohol levels at more reasonable levels. High alcohol content wines have a sharper, vodka aftertaste which significantly decreases quality and drinkability.
RO does not remove acetaldehyde. We have found using STARS may have a positive effect, as lowering the ph of the wine will free bound SO2, which may effectively remove some of the oxidative qualities of the 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
Cellar Dweller has processed hundreds of thousands of liters of VA affected wine, with levels of VA as great as 5 mg/liter, with excellent results. VA consumes alcohol, so a VA affected wine will be lower alcohol. If the wine was an excellent wine to start with, and has a relatively lower level of VA,
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.
Cellar Dweller normally does not provide the hoses on the inlet and outlet side of the equipment, but we do provide the drain hoses for equipment (STARS, CROSSFLOW). We also provide the fittings that for hoses connected to our equipment. Crossflow and STARS are tank to tank processes, so a clean receiving tank is needed