Spinning Cone Column Technology Arrives in New Zealand

Vintech Pacific Limited, New Zealand’s leading provider of mobile production technologies to the wine industry, announce a breakthrough development in the production of low and no alcohol wines.

Vintech Pacific Wine Technologies have successfully commissioned a new Spinning Cone Column at Hawke’s Bay Wine Company, Napier, Hawke’s Bay, A first for the New Zealand Wine Industry.

This technology allows for the production of high quality, low-alcohol and no-alcohol wines and other beverages.

Lion New Zealand were the inaugural client post commissioning of the unit. Vintech Pacific dealcoholized around 125kL of wine for their new Lindauer Free* Brut and Lindauer Free* Rosé, launching November 2019, which will complement the much-loved Lindauer family of sparkling wines. Lindauer Free* Wines contain not more than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume.

Utilising the Spinning Cone Column (SCC), the base wine was reduced in alcohol content to less than 0.5 percent by volume, while preserving aroma and flavour, creating a wine that offers consumers choice with little compromise.

The SCC is an ideal solution for wines and other beverage applications due to its ability to remove alcohol through very gentle means, without subjecting the product to high temperatures or pressures, which can damage delicate aroma, flavour and texture compounds.

SCC is in effect an advanced form of distillation. However, rather than subjecting the wine to high temperatures, the process occurs under vacuum. Rapidly spinning cones housed within the vacuum column create a vapour-thin film of wine, dramatically improving the efficiency of the process. As a result, the wine only reaches temperatures around 35-45°C and then only for around 25 seconds.

Moreover, to effectively lower the alcohol level in table wines, only a portion of the total volume need undergo this process, further eliminating any impact on the wine’s organoleptic qualities while providing important cost advantages over alternative processes.

While this new technology is the Gold Standard for the production of low-alcohol wines, the SCC can even be used to produce no-alcohol wines, beers and beverages.

Spinning Cone technology is widely used in food and beverage applications overseas, such as beer, coffee and the production of flavour essences. In fact, our pre-commissioning trials in New Zealand showed that SCC can effectively capture valuable aroma compounds from must during fermentation and keep those compounds stable, allowing them to be reintroduced to the wine at a later time, such as at bottling.

For more information on the use of Spinning Cone Column in the production of wine, beer and other beverage products, please contact your regional Vintech Pacific office.

Vintech Pacific Wine Technologies
Auckland | Gisborne | Napier | Blenheim | Cromwell
Phone: 021 783 236