Processing, sparkling wine

The bottling of transfer system sparkling wine is the same as that of bulk process sparkling wine and will be described later. It is reported that the loss of CO2 during the entire transfer system, from tirage bottle to the final product, is V2 to 1 gas volume CO2 (100-200 g/100 mL). Most of the loss is in the transfer operation itself. This degree of loss compares favorably with that of the traditional method, 1 to IV2 gas volumes C02. 

Immobilization is the technique of choice in many food industry processes and especially in beverage production. Many immobilization technologies have already been tested and some are applied in the production of beer, wine, vinegar, and other food products using a traditional approach with cultme adhesion (i.e., Acetobacter in vinegar production) or more modem approaches with entrapment of yeast biomass (i.e., sparkling wines, cheeses, and yogurts). 

Both of these facts are employed in the carbonation process of sodas and beer and some sparkling wines. Low-temperature conditions and CO2 pressures of 3 to 4 atm are used to enhance the dissolution of carbon dioxide gas in water. The graph in Fig. 3.1.1 presents the solubility of carbon dioxide in water at various temperatures and pressures. The parameter used to express CO2 solubility is... 

There are several processes for producing effervescent wine, but only three are of importance in California. These are the classic or traditional methode champenoise, the transfer system, and the bulk or Charmat process. These are all batch methods for making sparkling wine. The continuous fermentation method, used extensively in the Soviet Union, is not employed in California. Little artificially carbonated wine is made in California. 

In 1979, about sixteen wineries produced by the traditional method about 8 percent of the 8,300,000 cases of sparkling wine made in the state. Two major wineries using the transfer system produced about 9 percent, and the balance of the production (83 percent) was made by ten or eleven bulk process producers. 

Briefly, the traditional process consists of secondary fermentation of a sweetened still wine in a bottle, removal of the yeast sediment from the bottle, sweetening, recorking, and sale in the same bottle. Sparkling wine made in this manner is often labeled Fermented in This Bottle. In the transfer system, secondary fermentation is in the bottle, the fermented sparkling wine is transferred under pressure to a tank, filtered into a second tank, sweetened, and rebottled under counterpressure. These wines may... 

Winery E. The second bulk wine producer sells over 1,000,000 cases annually. Base wines for sparkling wine are selected from a huge inventory of new table wines stored in tanks of up to 300,000-gallon capacity at temperatures held below 8° C year round. White wines do not undergo malo-lactic fermentation. The malo-lactic fermentation is complete in red wines, which are aged for at least one year. Base wines are processed to be heat and cold stable. The pH and total acidity are adjusted by ion exchange and/or addi-... 

As described previously, during the elaboration of sparkling wines by the traditional method, an aging process takes place that is closely associated with the sensorial quality of the final wine. In fact, it is during this aging of sparkling wines that yeast autolysis takes place, by which the yeasts release intracellular compounds into the wine that can significantly alter its final composition (Charpentier and Feuillat 1993). 

Fumi, M.D., Trioli, G., Colagrande, O. (1987a). Preliminary assessment on the use of immobilized yeast-cells in sodium alginate for sparkling wine processes. Biotechnol. Lett., 9, 339-342. 

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