In the competitive wine business, innovation can be the key to survival and growth. When COVID-19 shut down tasting rooms, wineries adapted by moving online for virtual tastings and e-commerce, thus opening new revenue streams.
Innovation in winemaking is just as essential. As winemakers deepen their expertise with each harvest, they increasingly follow their intuition, adapting the process to create the fine wines of their imagination. Often, the changes they make are minor tweaks. But sometimes, a winemaker imagines a wine that needs a unique technology and expertise to produce.
That’s when they turn to experts like Koch Separation Solutions (KSS). With over 50 years in separation solutions, KSS broadened its membrane expertise into ion exchange, evaporation and drying. These complementary technologies work together to deliver cutting-edge solutions for the wine and beverage industries.
The synergy between membrane and ion exchange technology addresses tasks such as juice debittering and pulp removal, suspended solids and organics, tartrate stabilization, and resin treatments of white grape must for sparkling base wines. Similarly, for winemakers seeking to tap into the rising consumer interest in no and low alcohol alternatives, KSS solutions combine RO membranes and evaporation technologies to reduce wine’s alcohol content to as low as 0.2% ABV.
“When a client has a complex winery problem or an idea for a wine that isn’t yet in the market,” says Phil Sorrentino, Product Manager – Food, Beverage, Life Science, “we have an array of technology and the knowledge to help them craft a solution.”
This kind of partnership on next-generation problems and challenges happens so often at KSS that the company developed a collaborative innovation process guide. They employ this process across a broad range of industries, but the basic principles remain the same. Success comes from combining KSS technology experts with the winery’s first-hand experience with the problem or idea. In their experience, this collaborative approach means getting it done much faster.
The time from ideation to the pilot study might take a month, followed by another month for scale-up. The whole system could be up and running in six months. KSS has a process engineering team that does application development and a facility at their headquarters for comprehensive testing. When the product can’t be shipped, they can dispatch the pilot equipment to the winery for on-site testing.
For those wondering, “Is it possible to do this with my grape juice?”— it just might be. Collaborating with the KSS experts in an innovation process to develop a custom solution can make the possible a reality.
To learn more, visit the Koch Separation Solutions website or contact them directly at nicholas.barretto@kochsep.com.
