Conventional Wines

The Problem

In many of the world's hotter grape growing areas (e.g. California, Chile, Australia, Southern France, South Africa, Spain, etc.) a combination of soil, climate conditions and modern yeast strains drives sugar and alcohol levels several points higher than are desirable.

The Consequences

High alcohol “hotness” that has a masking effect on the flavor of the wine, that is increasingly found undesirable by consumers worldwide
Over extraction of grapes due to high alcohols
Stuck fermentations & the host of resulting evils

ConeTech's Answer

Since ConeTech's introduction of the Spinning Cone Column (SCC) first into California in 1991, and then into other countries, winemakers now have complete control over the process. This enables precise adjustment of the wine's alcohol level, to achieve harmony and balance (“sweet spot”) with all the other components of the wine.

The Traditional Solution

Winemakers had only three “solutions” to the problem of high alcohol

Solution	Consequences
1. Dilute with water	Sometimes illegal and always bad for quality
2. Pick grapes earlier then ideal	Sacrificing flavor development (ripeness) for lower alcohol
3. Blending away with other wines	Negative for quality and/or impossible with many premium varietals

The ConeTech Solution

Use the Spinning Cone Column
State of the art technology that uses a unique combination of thin-film techniques, low temperature vacuum operation, and minimal residence time. This highly selective molecular distillation process totally avoids any thermal damage or stress to the wine

The winemaker can therefore:

Select a relatively small portion of the wine
Separate all of its delicate, volatile aroma components
Remove the alcohol from this de-aromatized portion
No loss or damage to the flavor
Restore the aroma/flavor compounds to the de-alcoholized wine
Makes year round fermentation possible

Research into the solubility of volatile aroma/flavor compounds in alcohol has discovered that the “masking effect” is the result of key compounds drastically losing their volatility (and thus their perceptibility to nose and palate) as alcohol rises beyond an optimum level.

Volatility Graph