Advances in post-fermented wine clarification by centrifugal technology

Abstract

Wine clarification processes are deeply determined by complex interaction of wine constituents and application of available technologies as well as use of fining agents. Among others, centrifuge is a consolidated technique applied for many separation duties in the winery. Important advances on improvement of the performance of centrifugal technology have beeen focused on gentle wine treatment, minimal dissolved oxygen and significant reduction of energy consumption helping to dispel old beliefs on a technique considered to be traditional. This paper reviews the development of technology and recent advances on centrifuge improvement and aims to show, through field experimental observation, the importance of removing a portion of particles responsible of haze in the light of very low level of dissolved oxygen and complementarity of alternative recent techniques of wine filtration like cross-flow microfiltration.