Smoke Taint Removal

Via Reverse Osmosis

Start of Smoke Taint

• In June and July 2008 - 54,817 acres were destroyed throughout Mendocino County.

• Fire burned for weeks without containment.

• Dense smoke & poor visibility throughout Mendocino, Lake and Northern Sonoma Counties, including some areas of Napa County

Management Options

• Unfortunately…… very little information is available• Some or lots of anecdotal information is available

• Customer did various trials with other vendors and chose Winesecrets based on Service and Experience

British Columbia Fire in 2003

Customer Case Study

• Customer experimented with press fractions and Processed all affected white grapes with the following regime

• White Wine Free Run - free of smoke taint: – 135 Gallons / Ton

– Resulting in large amount of press wine to be processed

Red wine • Obviously More Difficult

• Eliminating Skin Contact Not an Option

• Containment– Separating press fractions and delay blending

• Keep known smoke free lots separate• Wait post ML to evaluate for treatment

Dealing with press fractions

• Ultra filtration of press wine:Experimented with 10k (MWCO)

10k:• Removed color and harsh phenolics retained

varietal character• Created neutral but very useable wine

Press fraction ready for RO treatment Up to 2 passes or less!!!

Ultra Filtration for Press FractionsUltra Filtration for Press Fractions

Molecular Wight cut-off range

• Crossflow Clarification 200,000 - 500,000• Ultrafiltration 1,000 - 200,000• Tannin & Browning 10,000 - 200,000• Protein Removal 10,000 - 40,000• Decolorization 1,000 - 5,000• Nanofiltration *** 500 - 1,000• Loose Reverse Osmosis 200 - 400• Reverse Osmosis 100 - 200

• *** Not allowed by TTB

Low Pressure Reverse Osmosis Membrane

Red Wine RO Treatment

• Wine should be clean < 50 NTU – XF Filtration?• Processed prior to barrel aging• Red vs. White ……It’s a slower Process!!

– Most challenging lots were red wines– Worst case: 10 passes on RO

• Tasted at least daily/more on smaller lots– Treated enough to remove taint– Didn’t over treat, risk stripping wine

Empowering the CustomerOur pride & specialty !

• After the initial Start –up face and completion of UF work we trained our customer to run our equipment.

• This lead to reduced cost per Gallon and more freedom in scheduling

• Winesecrets trained cellar staff and managed integration of the technology into cellar production

Challenges when tasting your wines

• Smoke characteristics carry over to next sample• Difficult to distinguish sample to sample – need a break• Slow to pick up “Post Nasal” - ST can show up 30 sec –

1 min. after tasting• Use a good control – 2006/07• Taste in the morning…. If you can

Wine Analysis

Smoke Taint Markers Wine Before Removal Permeate Before Carbon Permeate After Carbon Wine After Removal Guaiacol 14 ug/L 6ug/L <1ug/L 1 ug/L4-Methylguaiacol 8 ug/L 3ug/L <1ug/L 3 ug/L4-Ethylphenol <1 ug/L <1ug/L <1ug/L <1 ug/L4-Ethylguaiacol 2 ug/L <1ug/L <1ug/L 3 ug/LAlcohol 13.74 %V/V 12.82%V/V 12.95%V/V 13.81 %V/VpH 3.44 3.16 3.17 3.44OAP Wine Panel Completed Completed Completed CompletedCitric Acid None Detected None Detected None Detected None DetectedTartaric Acid 0.254 g/100mL 0.015g/100mL 0.014g/100mL 0.245 g/100mLMalic Acid 0.009 g/100mL None Detected None Detected 0.009 g/100mLLactic Acid 0.145 g/100mL 0.086g/100mL 0.075g/100mL 0.150 g/100mLAcetic Acid 0.047g/100mL 0.020g/100mL 0.021g/100mL 0.044g/100mLSuccinic Acid 0.082 g/100mL 0.055g/100mL 0.047g/100mL 0.080 g/100mLOrganic Acid Pro 0.537 g/100mL 0.198g/100mL 0.186g/100mL 0.519 g/100mL

Merlot

Permeate / Carbon Filter Blind Tasting

MERLOT 2008Phenol Analysis

12-Mar 13-Mar 14-Mar 16-MarBefore After Before After Before After Before After Before After Before After

CONTROL 1.599 1.074 1.501 1.52 1.869 1.581 1.946 1.65 1.508AF 1.675 0.724 0.023 0.016 0.038 1.326 0.051 0.102 0.705CC 1.673 0.038 0.038 0.186 0.869 0.973 0.031 1.496 2.48

Blind Tasting 6-Mar We tasted before and after samples from different filter's brands

Group GroupWine ID BB JC MC Z Score RankAF-AF 1 1 3 1 6 1CC-BF 6 6 6 6 24 6 AF Carbon Filter 1R-BF 5 4 5 5 19 5 CC Carbon Filter 2CC-AF 3 3 2 3 11 3 R ResinR-AF 2 2 1 2 7 2AF-BF 4 5 4 4 17 4

BF / BeforeAF / After

9-Mar

Scoring

5-Mar 6-Mar 7-Mar

Wine Samples (tasting)

DNV Wine 1

Guaiacol 13 ug/L

AFT Guaiacol 10 ug/L

DWB Wine 2

Guaiacol 12 ug/L

AFT Guaiacol 3 ug/L

Final conclusion regarding Smoke and Mirrors

• Since 2003 we have treated so far over 1.5 Mil gallons of wine

• Smoke taint removal works just fine • No re-occurrence…. Not on processed wine or in the

vineyards• All vendors use RO based membrane technology• Pressure vary from 250psi to 600/700psi – depending on

wine• Filter media is the key difference next to customer

Service (wrong media = negative effects/stripping)