Chapter 15 - Finishing and Packaging P2 Flashcards
2 most important considerations when bottling:
Hygiene
Oxygen management
What is total package oxygen? Why is it important to measure?
- Amt of dissolved oxygen in the wine
- The oxygen in the head space
- The amount of oxygen in the cork (or other closure)
- The Oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of the cork
Imp bc too much oxygen = oxidized characters & browning
Too little oxygen = reductive qualities
Pros of glass bottles:
- Inert and no taint
- Can be delivered to wineries in near sterile conditions (shrink wrapped when hot)
- Inexpensive to manufacture and comes in a range of colors
- 100% recyclable (in theory)
- Best option for aging wine bc it’s impermeable to O2
Cons of glass bottles:
- High carbon footprint to manufacture
- Heavy
- Fairly fragile
- Rigid. Rapid oxidation once wine is partly drunk
- Clear bottles can be spoiled by light strike
Plastic containers
Pros: 1/8th the weight of glass Tough Inexpensive Recyclable (in theory) Comes in many sizes
Cons:
Only good for wines with limited shelf life
Special equipment needed to inflate and fill the bags
Bag-In-Box
Cardboard box w/ flexible bag inside
Usually bag has lining protection against O2 like aluminum
Pros: Flexible pour size Good protection from O2 after opened - bag collapses inside the box 1.5-20L sizes Easy to store Low environmental impact
Cons: Slightly permeable to air (plastic is not impermeable to air nor is aluminum) Must have a slightly higher SO2 than glass to counter oxidation Needs a low dissolved O2 level No head space Low CO2 (prevent bag from bulging) High quality tap required to prevent O2 Only 6-9mth shelf life on average
‘Brick’
AKA Tetra Pak
Paper card w/ plastic layers and an aluminum foil layer - keeps out light and O2
Pros:
Can be filled entirely of wine (no headspace)
Accepted by consumers at low price points
Cons:
Filing equipment is a big investment (so much so that some producers outsource the filling of bricks)
Pouch
Similar to bag-in-box but available in larger and smaller sizes
Purposes of a wine closure:
- Protect the wine from O2
- Be inert so it does not interact with the wine
- Be easy to remove/reinsert
- be cheap, recyclable, no faults
Can
Pros: Lightweight Robust Easy to Open Impermeable to O2 Recyclable
Cons:
Filing equipment is expensive (often outsourced)
Usually only used for cheap to mid priced wines
Pros/Cons of Natural Cork
Pros:
Light
Flexible
Inert
Natural Resource
Positive image in the eye of the consumer
Comes in all diffrent lengths and qualities
Cons:
- Cork taint via TCA (moldy, wet cardboard)
- Variable rates of oxygen ingress. Wines bottled at the same time can have different aging rates
How do you limit cork taint?
- Cleaning corks w/ steam
- More rigorous QC during cork making and TCA checking
- Inexpensive polymer barrier bt cork and wine that prevents any aroma from reaching the wine
Technical Corks
Corks made out of natural cork but have been manufactured to limit cork taint and lower cost
Examples:
1/ agglomerated cork - cork granules glued together. Cheapest. Only suitable for inexpensive RTD wine
2. One plus one cork - largest, central section is inexpensive aggomerate. Finished with dic of natural cork at both ends
3. Diam corks - corks that have been cleaned and reconstituted with plastic. These have differnet O2 ingress rates winemakers can choose from
Synthetic Closures and major con
AKA Plastic corks
Con:
- Rigid (solution: extruded closures that have more elasticity)
- Moulded closures have limited protection from O2 ingress - only suitable for RTD wines
- Flavor Scalping - plastic absorbs flavor molecules, leading to a loss of flavor intensity
Closure options
- Natural cork
- Technical cork
- Synthetic cork
- Screwcap
- Glass stopper
What do winemakers check for in the wine before packaging? (AKA pre-filling analysis)
- Make sure wine is stable
- Make sure it meets all the technical specifications (ie. Sugar level, alcohol level, pH, stability analysis, VA level, free and total SO2 level, etc. pg169)
- Conforms to legal standards (ie SO2, trace metals)