winemaking

Wineries choose crossflow for reliable filtration

Wineries seeking a competitive edge are embracing filtration technologies, particularly crossflow, for its ability to produce quality results with reduced intervention. Grapegrower & Winemaker journalist Kellie Arbuckle spoke with four winemakers to get their thoughts on the topic: Sarah Crowe of Bimbadgen, in NSW; Craig Thompson of Paringa Estate, in VIC; Clive Jones of Nautilus Estate, NZ; and Matthew Large of Wither Hills, NZ.
What winery filtration equipment you have been exposed to over the years?

Crowe: Pad filtration, earth filtration (Rotary Drum Vacuum (RDV), plate and frame, and pressure leaf filter) and crossflow.

Bimbadgen winemaker Sarah Crowe.

Jones: Certainly crossflow filtration has been a big advancement, and the concept of having alternative cartridges for lees and wine filtration looks very promising. Large: Over the past 10 years it has to be the development in better automated crossflow technology and winemakers getting a better understanding of its application, especially in New Zealand. There has been a real push from a health and safety point of view to get away from the use of DE and also the fact that the new crossflow machines can be run with minimal operator input.
What form/s of filtration are you currently using in the winery? Can you briefly describe the machines and the outcomes you are trying to deliver with each?

Thompson: In the early days I used an RDV for lees filtration and an earth filter for polishing finished wine. After that, I used plate and frame, centrifuge, crossflow, depth filter cartridges and membrane filtration. Jones: Earth filtration in the early days and more recently crossflow filtration. Large: Pad, plate and frame, earth (both RDV and vertical/horizontal plate), lenticular, crossflow and membrane.
What do you think has been the most significant research or development in wine filtration and why?

Crowe: Pad filtration for premium reds and whites for gentle polishing before bottling; earth filtration for large volume whites, clarification and polishing for bottling; and crossflow for some large red wine batches and insurance for exporting, especially if theres an amount of residual sugar. Thompson: We use a Bucher FX2 crossflow filtration system in the winery. With the majority of our wines being Pinot Noir,
Paringa Estate winemaker Craig Thompson.

we are aiming to reduce microbiological load with minimal impact on the fragile nature of the varietys character. Jones: We have a Della Toffola ceramic membrane crossflow filter which we use for all our wine filtration including our Pinot Noir. We also have an RDV for juice lees filtration. Large: For all finished wine we use a Pall XL6. This is used to filter our wine straight from protein and cold stabilisation to bottle-ready wine in one pass. Since the move to crossflow technology, we have minimised the need for multiple filtration steps. For juice lees we use an RDV, mainly due to the speed and quality of the juice we get. The slightly higher DO pick up gives us good results as far as a clean and healthy fermentation.
Are any of your wines not filtered? If so, can you tell us the reason behind this?

Crowe: Probably crossflow and the insurance it can give when you need it. Thompson: The movement away from filters requiring the addition of a filtration mediums such as diatomaceous earth (DE) to filtration such as centrifuge and crossflow which operate on the principles of physics.

Crowe: No, Im a safety girl when it comes to bottling wines for a company that isnt my own. Thompson: All our wines pass through the crossflow. This decision is based on commercial risk. We are a medium-sized boutique winery with a market presence that punches above its weight. As such we want to keep the risk of spoilage and disappointing our fans to a minimum. Jones: We filter all our wines. We export all over the world and want to minimise the risk of any spoilage. We have done post-filtration triangle tests and dont see any sensory difference between filtered and unfiltered wines (thats after a postfiltration rest period).

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Large: No, all of our wines are filtered to maintain quality and microbial stability as they age in the bottle.
With regards to wine export, have you seen many changes to standards and specifications that affect the way you have to filter? If so, how have you achieved these demands?

Crowe: Some markets prefer red wines that have an amount of residual sugar which is why Ive adopted crossflow. Thompson: Not that I am aware of. As unrelated as it is, we do have to put a best before or spoilage date on wine we send to the Ukraine. Jones: No. Large: Not really, standards are still very high and I think that by using a crossflow we are achieving a better result with less pumping of the wine. Some pressure has come on from a health and safety point of view, hence the move towards technology that doesnt use DE.
Nautilus Estate winemaker Clive Jones.

dont seem to have any difficult varieties to filter. Thompson: Pinot Noir is notoriously difficult to filter. That said, we do not have any issues with the crossflow. Jones: Pinot has the lowest flow rates through the filter due to the colloidal structure of the wine. We find temperature has a large effect on flow rates and we will filter at cellar temperature if we can, rather than cold. Large: Pinot Noir seems to be the hardest. Flow rates are more than half compared with Sauvignon Blanc. We think this is a combination of higher protein (Pinot Noir not protein stabilised) and the various polymers within the wine. We tend to find that a light egg-white fining greatly increases the ability to filter difficult wines.
What new ideas and developments would you like to see from suppliers/manufacturers to improve current filtration regimes?

Have you suffered any wine quality repercussions while using any form of filtration medium over the years?

Crowe: Different wines respond to filtration differently; sometimes a wine will immediately look better and sometimes it will look flat. After a mini-heart attack, they always seem to bounce back. Thompson: The detractors of plate and frame and DE filtration express concern with regard to the aroma profile of the filtration medium entering the wine. I believe the quality repercussions with regard to centrifugation, crossflow and depth filters is more subtle and based around the stripping of character and components of the wine. That said, I have never sat down to taste a controlled trial of filtered versus unfiltered wine after a year in bottle. Coming at the question from another angle, I have witnessed devastating repercussion due to not using filtration. Jones: No. Large: No, I think the move to crossflow has eliminated any potential issues around filtration mediums, such as contaminated DE.
What are the hardest wines to filter in your region and why?

Thompson: While we dont involve ourselves with lees filtration this is an area that can be improved for bigger wineries. While I have not used a crossflow for this application the processes I have been involved with in the past were very slow, clumsy and detrimental in quality to juice that was already of low potential quality. In the end any form of filtration that can be proven to have the least impact on wine while achieving the desired outcome will win out. Jones: Bring down the cost of juice lees crossflow filters. Large: Some of the new technology around high solids filtration is looking attractive. A one-stop machine that can filter juice, juice lees, stabilised wine and finished wine lees at a high rate would be the ultimate.

an entered volume. The crossflow is also programmed to take a certain course of action in the case of extreme blocking and will shut down if that action cannot be taken. Having said all that, there is still no fail safe for operator, leaking racking doors or wine hose issues. Jones: Yes, we happily operate our crossflow 24 hours and over the weekends if we need to. This virtually eliminates time pressure with our filtration program. We use rubber hoses, back flow preventers, and we installed double block and bleed valves on the inlet and outlet. Large: It has drastically reduced the amount of physical filtering we do and the amount of time in which a cellarhand is busy dealing directly with filtration. We dont operate it 24 hours without a cellarhand onsite, mainly due the fact that we are using flexible wines and were not 100% confident in them. We have looked into automated float level alarms, solenoid valves and fixed lines, but we havent gone down that road as of yet. We have no issues around the technology in the machines to be able to do it; it is just the winery environment we are unsure of.
Do you think winemakers are embracing the newer filtration technologies? Or should this be addressed with more education on a wider scale, i.e., regional filtration seminars?

With the introduction of crossflow filtration how has this changed the working philosophy of the cellar in regards to planning? Do you operate on a 24-hour basis? If so, what fail-safe procedures are in place?

Crowe: Pinot Noir is the hardest wine Ive ever had to filter. In the Hunter Valley we

Crowe: No. When I do crossflow I use a mobile service. Thompson: While we have no need to run 24 hours in the winery our crossflow will shut down when wine supply becomes an issue and can be set to shut down after
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Crowe: Some people are moving away from filtration while others are embracing things like crossflow. Like everything in winemaking, were all different! We can always learn something new and my aim is to continually improve my wines and winemaking. Anything to help that is worthwhile. Thompson: I believe winemakers in general have embraced filtration, especially since the Brettanomyces heyday of the late 90s. The capital required for more sophisticated forms of filtration such as crossflow is prohibitive for many small producers, but contract filtration is available. Additionally, our regional Bucher representative already runs seminars aimed at getting the most out of the crossflow and general best practice. Jones: Yes, I think winemakers are open to new ideas in filtration, and education through seminars is a good idea. Large: Yes, I think we are. Although it may take a few years of trial work before we feel 100% confident, I think with the increasing pressure on cost savings and competition through quality of wines, winemakers are looking for that competitive advantage and if better filtration technology is out there, then we will go looking for it.
March 2013 Issue 590

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Wither Hills South Island operations winemaker Matthew Large.