20 Nov Colour extraction : soft and smart (part 2)

In addition to the traditional techniques, which, as we have just seen can be revisited in extraction technology to enable control and for improving selectivity of the desired compounds which add quality to the wine, some other techniques are quite innovative and provide maximum and soft levels of extraction.

Air Mixing
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Air Mixing is an innovative extraction system which consists of the injection of one or more jets using inert gas or air from the bottom of the tank. The bubbles rising towards the surface must be able to break the cap, whilst disgregate completely and overturning it in a completely soft way.

Air Mixing can be used not only during the maceration phase, but also as part of the pre-fermentation phase, where it makes use of inert gases or during aging and maturation, allowing the lees to be lifted and resuspended.

The injectors from one to ten, can be placed on any tank or fermenter and allow you to transform an ordinary stainless steel tank into an automatic fermenting device, regardless of its size at a quite sustainable cost.

Nectar method

How does an isobaric fermenter work? Imagine a bottle of sparkling wine: up until it is closed and pressurised, CO₂ is dissolved into the liquid, then when you open it, effervescence is formed. The Nectar method is the same: the bubbles coming up through the mass mix the cap and extract the pigments, both naturally and without the intervention of mechanical devices.

The Nectar® fermenter combines innovative features and functions which are available separately with other types of fermenters. Each function can be used by itself or in tandem with the other, so that it can ensure a soft extraction, and perfectly under control. All without the use of pumps, fullers, blades, electric motors, funnels or other mechanical devices.

The characteristic functions of the Nectar® winemaker are:
1) IMMERSION CAP, obtained exclusively due to over-pressure caused by natural CO₂ of fermentation or another gas (CO₂ o N₂) which has been infiltrated from the outside;
2) ISOBARIC ALLUVIATION, the special wetting of the cap for spraying from the upper tank, carried out without the use of pumps and which takes place while the cap of marc is still partially submerged;
3) AERO PUMPING OVER, which all of a sudden relieves any over saturation of CO₂ inside the pressed mass. The sudden transition from 0.4 bar to atmospheric pressure allows the entire mass to be mixed, along with a concomitant rupture and perfect distribution of the marc.
It is a combination of all three functions of the NECTAR®, which causes a homogeneous distribution of all of the berries inside the liquid, without any mechanical action and with a minimal formation of dregs. The processes of alluviation and aero pumping over, allow the cap to become permanently and completely detached from all the skins which are entirely immersed in the wine-must, and therefore provide the best conditions for the dissolution of the noble substances present in the peel.