News
Technology knocks the heat out of wine
A process that strips alcohol from wine, without removing quality or flavour, has been awarded a top honour by the peak body representing wine industry suppliers – WISA (Wine Industry Suppliers Australia).
Alcohol is a “hot” topic in the Australian wine industry. Alcohol levels in wine have been increasing over the last 20 years according to figures from the Australian Wine Research Institute. And with consumer demand for fruit-driven wines, coupled with challenges posed by climate change, chances are the trend towards higher alcohol levels may continue to increase.
Memstar Alcohol Adjustment is a process developed after many years research in South Australia and Victoria, that was released to the Australian wine industry during 2005-06. Winemakers, including Pirramimma’s Geoff Johnston (McLaren Vale), have been instrumental in trialling the Memstar process and the technology has just had its “breakthrough” year. Some 50-60 million litres of Australian wine were treated with the Memstar process during 2006-07, up from 5-6 million litres in 2005-06 – a whopping 1000% increase in a 12-month period.
It was this demonstrable industry acceptance and uptake that won Memstar the WISA WOW Award for 2007. This award recognises the “wow” factor of innovation, experimentation and technological advancement in engineering and design by wine industry suppliers.
The WISA judges saw several key factors in the Memstar process when casting their vote for the WOW Award:
- Australian-designed innovation with national focus and application, trialled and developed in association with winemakers (e.g. Pirramimma, McLaren Vale)
- The Memstar model can be purchased outright, however, as the capital cost of the equipment is considerable, many wineries are choosing to hire the equipment to treat their wine on-site
- The Memstar process has achieved international recognition at an early stage and the technology has potential for export to other wine-producing countries.
There are several reasons why winemakers want to reduce the alcohol levels in their wines:
- Social, health and political pressure from within and external to the wine industry to provide lower-alcohol (and no-alcohol) options for wine consumers
- Opportunity for wine producers to gain a marketing niche for the sale of a lower-alcohol range of wines to consumers
- Climate change is anticipated to increase temperatures in many Australian wine regions (e.g. South Australia’s Riverland), the hotter temperatures increase sugar levels in ripening grapes, and lead to increased alcohol content during fermentation. Using the Memstar process, winemakers can specify a target alcohol content and then strip excess alcohol from the wine
- Many countries to which Australian wineries export, including the USA, tax wine producers at higher levels when alcohol exceeds 14% (or an amount set by that country’s authorities). Memstar’s process enables winemakers to supply wine at consistent alcohol levels to all countries to which the winery exports. There are many bottomline business savings for wine producers in this context.
Louise Fraser, chairman of Wine Industry Suppliers Australia, congratulated Memstar on winning the inaugural WISA WOW Award.
“Memstar has provided a vital supporting technology to Australian winemakers with this development and I know many winemakers are looking forward to the WineTech 2007 exhibition in Adelaide which begins later this month (July 29-August 1) where they will be able to view this technology for the first time at the Adelaide Convention Centre,” she said.