Winery sanitation

Crushing and Fermentation. Daily Equipment Cleaning and Sanitization. All equipment used in the crushing operation must be cleaned and sanitized daily. This is especially important in keeping the local population of fruit flies to a minimum and in avoiding early build up of volatile acidity from Acetobacter infections. Winery waste tends to putrify rapidly if allowed to stand. 

Barrel Sanitation. This is perhaps the most important single item in all of Phase I quality control for the winery which ages wines in barrels. 

Quality control audit of incoming bottling room supplies, such as filtration media (membranes), glassware, corks, screw caps in non-premium wineries, labels, foil capsules or sheets, wire hoods, and plastic or natural corks in sparkling wine operations Sanitation practices... 

Wine Institute, San Francisco, Sanitation Guide for Wineries, revised,... 

Food and Drug agencies, state and federal, even before World War II began efforts to improve the sanitation practices of the industry. From 1958, the Wine Institute employed a sanitation expert. A sanitation handbook that gave detailed instructions on improving winery practices was published and has been kept up to date. 

The second point of entry of microorganisms into the winemaking process is from the winery flora. Several studies have examined the impact of winery microbiota in wine production, and as would be predicted, this impact depends upon sanitation and inoculation practices and when the study was conducted during the production season as microbial populations build up on winery surfaces as fruit continues to be received. Thus the local winery population impacting the first fruit to arrive at the winery is fewer in number than the local winery population impacting fruit harvested and processed much later in the same season. The nature of the community also differs. As the season progresses, the winery microbiota becomes dominated by Saccharomyces (Bisson Joseph, 2009 Renouf, Perello, Strehaiano, Lonvaud-Funel, 2006). 

Hall, G.W. 1988. Winery Sanitation. Santa Rosa, GA Gleanall, Inc. 

Microbiological problems in the winery may be cumulative or, seemingly, spontaneous and isolated in occurrence. Fundamental to the control of microbiological spoilage is a well-functioning sanitation program. Chapter 7 deals with the basics of sanitation as well as monitoring success. 

Presented here are general descriptions of preservatives and sterilants as well as filtration options that can be used at different stages during the winemaking process. A variety of additives may be used to control the growth of microorganisms. These include sulfur dioxide, lysozyme, dimethyl dicarbonate, and sorbic acid. The use of other additives such as fumaric acid, nisin, carbon monoxide, and particular plant extracts has also been explored. Additional antimicrobial chemicals that are used in a winery as sanitizers are discussed in Chapter 9. 

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