Aha! Andy, if you've read that PDF carfeully, what you saw is that the removal of VA is actually accomplished by ion exchange chromatography of the RO "permeate." So, yes, RO is used in the removal of VA, but only as a tool in conjunction with other technology. By itself, RO cannot remove VA from wine for the reasons cited by Ian.
Mark Lipton
Salut/Hi Mike,
le/on Mon, 07 Mar 2005 07:20:41 +0100, tu disais/you said:-
Martin said
Mart's Tin shed?
That's in France, Mike. In the UK, wines like Yarra Yering are available - at a price.
Absolutely true. It's astonishing.
per year, yet high
Well, in NW USA, there's a lot of talk about wide diurnal variations in temperature being very important, together with long bunch hang time.
You should, because for a European, used to European viticultural methods and results, what they do in the Antipodes seems to fly in the face of everything obvious,and yet work!
One thing I've learnt in my visits to many various places, is that wonderful wine can be made in far more places than any one region considers possible, by using viticultural and vinicultural techniques found abhorrent in other regions! So in Oz, they can't chaptalise, but they can irrigate, while its the opposite in Europe, and so on.
"don't know whether 600 machines in the thousands of estates counts as a significant "
Ian, while many (most? pretty sure all of the 1sts except maybe Margaux) of the larger more prestigous estates own their own RO machines, my understanding many of the machines are owned by consultants/specialists who are contracted by wineries (just as many chateaux contract out bottling) , so they might service dozens of estates. So I'd say that 600 machines is pretty significant (especially since when most of us refer to Bordeaux, we're not referring to the petit chateaux that produce 2,000 cases per annum).
Noted, Mark. Thanks. This process (VA reduction using RO and ion exchange) was done last week on a wine that I helped make at school. (I'm a student of Enology and Viticulture in Walla Walla, WA USA.) I tasted the result this morning and the wine was much improved. The VA had been about 1.5 ppm if I recall correctly, and the treatment brought it down to 0.6 ppm, with no loss of flavor or other desirable components. It's a syrah-based blend.
Andy
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