Separator's Digest - GEA Westfalia Separator Group

we extract the colour from the skin of the
grape and can go directly to the machine in
a continuous process. We juice and
immediately obtain the fermentable must
from the decanter; it is initially hot. In a heat
exchange process with cold mash, energy is
recovered, and we can then lower the
temperature of the must in a final stage so
that we can go with a fermentation
temperature of 18 °C directly with the red
wine to the fermentation tank.
Separator‘s Digest: How many employees
do you need for operating the
decanter line?
In Badischer Winzerkeller, the decanter lines
can be completely operated by two
employees. In terms of manpower, we thus
have an additional major advantage and, in
terms of energy input, we also have major
potential savings compared with our
previous method of operation involving
scroll type presses and various other work
stages.
Constantly better results
than the scroll-type press
Separator‘s Digest: How does the decanter
perform compared with the
scroll­type press and the tank press?
When we saw what a decanter is capable of
doing, we realised relatively quickly that it
always provides better results than a scrolltype
press. Some grape mashes may be
juiced more easily with a tank press, and
other grape mashes can be juiced more
easily with a decanter. Overall, these two
methods are of equal quality. however, the
disadvantage of the tank press is that it
requires a preclarification stage, either with
a centrifuge or a flotation stage or a sedimentation
stage. and with thermovinification,
I cannot use continuous operation
with a tank press because the mash first has
to be heated and has to be kept in a tank
for several hours in order to obtain a
reaction time.
Two thirds of production
Separator‘s Digest: What volumes do
you process in Badischer Winzerkeller
with the Westfalia Separator vinex
decanters?
Wilfried dörr: today, decanters handle two
thirds of our production. I am now in my
fourth season at Badischer Winzerkeller,
and we now have two production lines
operating with decanters. everything which
runs through the decanters lines is done
without must preclarification. In the production
process downstream of the decanter,
we also have a flotation possibility
which we can run directly after the process.
and we also do this in certain cases,
depending on the mash which we have.
Otherwise, after the decanter, there are no
more centrifuge operations. We still use
centrifuges for must clarification for our
tank press installation. We will continue to
retain this process for the time being,
particularly also for relatively small batches.
and for absolute peak days, we also have a
scroll-type press which will also continue to
be used in order to cope with the peaks.
Earning its spurs
Separator‘s Digest: Is Westfalia
Separator vinex now accepted and
established in the wine industry?
Wilfried dörr: the wine industry has now
accepted that this technology works, but
the level of acceptance is still not complete.
Wine growers have been pressing grapes
for 5000 years, irrespective of pressing system.
now somebody comes along and says
we no longer need to press. that is not
easy. however, there were also difficulties
experienced in the move away from the
wooden cask to a stainless steel tank. Or in
the move away from kieselguhr filtration to
crossflow filtration. even the initial use of
the centrifuge in the 1950‘s and 1960‘s did
not take place overnight. technologies
which are new always have to earn their
spurs for many years before they are
accepted. I make no exception for myself in
this respect.
Separator‘s Digest: In addition to
the Westfalia Separator vinex process,
Badischer Winzerkeller also uses centrifuges
from GEA Westfalia Separator
for clarifying the young wines.
Wilfried dörr: We have several irons in the
fire at our company in this respect. the
traditional method is clarification using a
centrifuge and subsequent kieselguhr
filtration. alternatively, this can today also
be achieved only with clarification via
crossflow filtration installations. In general,
we use the traditional method for the white
wines and the crossflow method of
Gea Westfalia Separator Process for the red
wines. however, it is no longer possible to
conceive of wine clarification without
centrifuges.
35 million bottles per year
Separator‘s Digest: What quantities do
you produce every year?
Wilfried dörr: We produce around 35 million
bottles per year. this year, we expect to
receive around 30 million kg of grapes from
our full suppliers and also several million
litres of must which we source from our
partial suppliers. as Badischer Winzerkeller,
we offer a range of around 150 wines;
however, for other cooperatives and winemaking
operations, we produce up to 600
different wines. It is true that we are a large
operation; however, for us it is no problem
at all to make 200 litres of a special harvest
in the same way as 1.2 million litres of wine
from Baden grapes.
Separator‘s Digest: Thank you very
much for the interview.
Today, Westfalia
Separator
vinex decanters
handle two thirds
of the production.