Winemaking

A particular boost to innovation is linked to the Westfalia Separator^® VINEX^® process for continuous grape juicing. The maximum yield with simultaneous premium quality has already made Westfalia Separator^® VINEX^® the preferred juicing process for many vintners.

Conventional presses have the following disadvantages: the mash has to stand for several hours, inhomogeneous must quality, laborious pre-buffering of the mash as well as poor hygiene and notable quantities of solids in the juice. Westfalia Separator^® VINEX^® is quite different: using the decanter makes continuous juicing of grapes possible for the first time, allowing the previously customary mash retention times of up to eight hours (and the tanks required for this) to be dispensed with. At around 85 percent for red grapes, yield is also above average. Juicing with decanters also guarantees a uniform juice quality. Westfalia Separator^® VINEX^® works extremely gently.

The stems and seeds of the grapes are not destroyed during decanting, with the result that no bitter substances are extracted – in contrast to the screw press method. On the other hand, the fruit flesh is juiced to the maximum, including fructose, acids and salts. In mash-fermented red wine processing, the decanter method removes virtually all the yeast. Under ideal conditions, this allows much easier clarification with a lower load on the product. The closed system furthermore reduces unwanted oxidation and is easy to clean.

In addition to grape juicing by the Westfalia Separator^® VINEX^® process, decanters from GEA Westfalia Separator are also outstanding in other process stages. In wineries they can be used wherever liquids containing a high proportion of solids need to be clarified.

 These tasks include

• must clarification
• concentration of lees
• pre-clarification of yeast sediment from the fermenters
• concentration of fining trub

Separators are used in all process stages in which solid particles have to be removed. Wineries use them for

• clarifying wine in the first racking and before
• polishing in the second racking (fining stage) as well as for
• tartrate stabilization.

Early clarification is often a key factor in a clean taste and thus in the overall quality and market value of a wine.

Whilst self-clarification by means of sedimentation is time-consuming and requires cooling energy, high-performance clarifiers from GEA Westfalia Separator perform all fine clarification operations in a much shorter period. They are also able to separate solid particles approx. 0.5 μm in size. The winemaker saves tank space, as the wine does not have to be stored for sedimentation. The yeast sediment is healthier and purer. Much less SO₂ is required because a proportion of the oxygen-transferring oxydases has already been removed with the trub in the must stage. It is possible to stabilize, filter and remove colloids better and more economically from wines from separated musts. Fewer filter aids are required and filter lives are considerably extended.

Another application is the stabilization and separation of tartrate crystals which form when the wine is fermented. To prevent tartrate crystals precipitating in the bottled wine, the tartrate settles by cooling or cold-storing the wine over several days in conventional processes. The method developed by GEA Westfalia Separator of adding contact tartrate reduces this process to about two to four hours. A separator is combined with a hydrocyclone for this purpose. The hydrocyclone separates the coarse crystals. These are recycled and can easily be reused as contact tartrate. The fine crystals are subsequently separated by a separator and are sold as tartrate.