Wine Industry Report

drinktec 2009 directs attention to the big picture

How much technology - and what technology - is needed in the production of whisky or Riesling? It´s a question that has been the subject of heated debate in the trade for many years. But whatever the individual viewpoint, what is sure is that at some stage in the process, some technology will be needed, by all wine and spirits producers. Just what technology is best suited for which applications will be highlighted next year, between 14 and 19 September 2009, at the world´s biggest trade fair for beverage and liquid food technology - drinktec, at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre.

In the past some wines had to be laid down for years before they developed a truly ’rounded’ flavour. Nowadays, thanks to modern winery technology, this is no longer necessary. Which is great news for the consumer - for who wants to store a bottle of red wine for ten years before being able to open it? The currently popular fruity, pure-toned white wines with a good portion of CO2 are also a product of the modern winery. They are the result of chilled fermentation in a stainless steel tank using pure culture yeast strains.

More must in the barrel
The fact that a particular technology works, is accepted by the consumer and brings quality benefits, is only half the story. It must also enable cost-effective production of the wine, because wine is increasingly coming under price pressure. Against this background solids management is becoming more and more important in wine production. Basically this is about effective separation of fermentable extract and non-required solids. The trub (suspended matter) that remains as sediment in the tank contains between 50 and 80 percent recoverable must, for example. And no less than 10 to 20 percent of the harvested volume of a vineyard contains a lot of trub. Trub management therefore has a strong impact on the cost-effectiveness of an operation and on the quality of the end product.

Centrifuges are gaining ground
To optimise trub management, a whole range of tried-and-tested procedures are available on the market. These include various filters, presses and centrifuges, such as will be on show at drinktec 2009. Many experts are expecting great things of centrifugal separation technology. With its fully continuous method, free of auxiliary substances, centrifugal separation offers quality and cost-efficiency benefits as compared to filtration or presses, in all stages of wine clarification, and in juice extraction and must clarification. Added to this is the fact that decanters and separators are multi-purpose machines in wineries. A decanter for must processing can also be used for processing sediment yeast during the rest of the year. These are benefits that make themselves felt in the market. In Australia, for example, almost all major firms in the wine industry now use modern separators. Other systems for processing trub are now more or less a thing of the past.

Successful technology transfer
A similar situation exists in the spirits industry. Here, too, processes and systems are playing an ever more important role - even with such tradition-steeped products as Scottish whisky. But not in distillation - this is still carried out in the copper distillation vessel. However, in mash processing, brewing-industry lauter tubs with innovative lauter controls are now being used, because they shorten processing times, increase yield and operate at a very constant level. This is a good example of why it is a good idea to keep an eye on what´s happening elsewhere in technology. It is just this kind of all-round view that will be available at drinktec: on around 100,000 square metres of space, there will be a comprehensive display of all the latest process technology for beverages, milk, liquid food, beer and malt.

Cork oaks grow slowly
drinktec also has its eye on the big picture when it comes to a real long-running debate - packaging. Here, for both spirits and wine, all the latest trends in the world of beverages will be covered. Unusual packaging, ever more specialised, ever smaller batches… in short: in these industries too, flexible modular-construction machines are the answer, as are self-adhesive labels, and new ideas such as spirits in PET and bag-in-box wine packaging are gaining ground.

Another big theme is still closures - here drinktec did justice to its pioneering role back in 2005 when at a high-ranking panel discussion attention turned to the question of: Closures for wine bottles - Cork or glass? The background is this: more and more wines (demand is growing worldwide) needed cork closures. But as we know, cork oaks grow very slowly, so that it´s not possible to have top quality cork all the time. And an estimated 10 percent of bottles are negatively affected by cork taste. This fact has led many to rethink. Now what is happening is that cork is being used primarily for high-value wines that are laid down. For all other wines, screw closures, glass stoppers, plastic corks and crown corks are common alternatives, and now accepted by the consumer. Many other matters of interest, in particular which machines are best to use for the individual solutions, will be showcased at drinktec - often in live demonstrations and fully functional operation. The international world of beverages will definitely not want to miss this date in 2009.

[Source | press release]