In 1986, Wines & Vines moseyed on down to San Jose to talk with Barry Gnekow, then winemaker at J. Lohr, about a new technology called reverse osmosis (R/O).
As an aside, Gnekow mentioned that submariners from the Navy's Pacific Fleet stock up on Ariel prior to getting underway for a nice stay under the Polar cap. True, no licensed beverages are allowed on Navy vessels, but since Ariel has less than .05% a.c. it can come aboard.Vinovation isn't just covering the California market, either. It has identified at least 14 overseas markets where the technology could be a factor.Whatever you call it, just don't call it "weird science."In 1986 (and also in this issue), Wines & Vines carried an article on the no-ethanol Ariel produced at J. Lohr in San Jose. The dealcoholization also employed R/O, as it does today, although the wine no longer is made at J. Lohr but at the former Papagni winery in Madera, Calif. So the technique is not new. In fact, Ariel President Barry Gnekow first read about the process in 1976. But back to Vinovation; more about Ariel later.A little over a year ago, the Wisconsin Dairies Waumandee plant installed a Water Recovery System |TM~, (WRS) utilizing reverse osmosis membranes, at its Cochrane, Wis., plant. By installing the system, Wisconsin Dairies hoped to reduce the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) of the condensate off the evaporator from 35 to 40 mg/liter, down to 15 to 18 mg/liter. The system has not only met the plant's expectations, but has surpassed them. The water currently coming off the WRS contains a BOD of only 8 to 9 mg/liter.Because Scandinavian politicians and others in the public eye bear considerable scrutiny, often no-ethanol wine is served at such functions as state dinners.* reproduce the effects of botrytis in absence of the mold.What the new company offers is the removal of volatile acidity from problem wines. Needless to say, because of the nature of the service the two can't provide testimonials from happy clients.The process had been used to desalinate seawater and to purify water for the electronics industry, but Gnekow, who'd read about the process in 1976, felt it had wine and juice making potential as well.Simple, compact system"The system 'polishes' approximately 50% of the plant's discharge water through the membrane filters, and releases it into the adjacent creek" says Paul Mullikin, plant manager. "The remainder flows to a storage tank, where it is then further used for boiler makeup, initial wash in the CIP systems, hosing down trucks, or washing down the exterior of equipment such as the evaporator." Any water not needed for these functions is ultimately diverted to the wastewater treatment site for final processing.Basically, R/O is an extension of ultrafiltration, the basic differences being different pressures, different flow rates, membrane sizes, and the fact that the liquid flows across the membrane.The WRS is quite compact, measuring just 4 ft. wide by 15 ft. long. SeparaTech not only sold Wisconsin Dairies the system, but installed it and trained the plant's personnel as well. According to Mullikin, the WRS is very simple and convenient to use, and basically runs itself once the pressure is established.Barry Gnekow no longer is winemaker at J. Lohr. He's winemaker and president of Ariel Vineyards, which has its headquarters at Napa, Calif. (plus the first non-alcoholic wine tasting room, in the Napa Town Center), and its 60,000 square-foot production facility at Madera, Calif. using a good portion of the former Papagni winery along Highway 99.Partner Rick Jones, a native of Flint, Mich., attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he studied literature, the visual arts and music composition. He became interested in winemaking while touring Europe with the Antioch College Chorus in 1975. After visiting such winegrowing areas as Alsace and Burgundy, he headed for California. He was accepted into the Davis enology program in 1980, and earned his B.S. in 1982. He received a fellowship to study the problem of regional ethanol variation (which Vinovation has solved) and covered the state for three years, harvesting and fermenting more than 1,000 lots of grapes. He has been director of technical services at San Martin Winery and was brandymaster/production manager at Jepson Vineyards in Mendocino County. The distillation experience came in handy in designing the hardware for the alcohol adjustment technology.Gnekow said the company gets a great deal of market feedback during supermarket demos. He said when he was winemaker at J. Lohr, he got one or two letters a year. Now, with Ariel, he gets considerably more than that.* control a wide range of acids;To crystallize what we learned from Gnekow (M.S., Fermentation Science, U.C., Davis) back in '86 was that with R/O you can:The companys' main unit is located at St. Supery in the Napa Valley; the winery has a Distilled Spirits Plant license. Customers ship their wine to St. Supery for ethanol removal processing."The evaporator operator simply monitors the flow, which is controlled by a mag flow meter and a Taylor scan controller," Mullikin says. The system is also equipped with alarms, alerting the operator when there is a deviation in pressures, change in conductivity, low level of fluid, or if the flow rate across the membranes decreases below desired levels. The system is designed for variations in feed rates, compensating for changing feed volumes throughout the day.The #1 market for Ariel, Gnekow said, is northern California. Number two, southern California. He says Norway is booming thanks to a couple of things: a great distributor with six years' tenure and a government requirement that establishments serving licensed beverages on premise must carry at least one no-ethanol wine and one no-ethanol beer. Hence, such products fill the bill for the person who doesn't want to settle for bottled water or juice, but would rather "have a glass of wine" with everybody else. Of course, it doesn't hurt that a restaurateur makes more profit on non-alcoholic items than on water or juice.In dairy cheese plants, every 100 lbs. of milk yields about 10 lbs. of cheese and 90 lbs. of whey. Of this whey, about 6 lbs. is whey solids and 84 lbs. is water. Evaporators are used to remove a large portion of this water. The evaporation process, operating under vacuum to lower the boiling point and energy costs, does allow some gases and impurities to pass into the water that is removed.Smith and Jones also pointed to growing interest among winemakers in small-scale R/O machines and related equipment for V.A. removal, juice concentration or for dessert wine production. Vinovation can design and sell original equipment developed for specific needs.Gnekow said Ariel is in 22 markets abroad. In the U.S., most sales are at retail. Eight years ago, Ariel sought positioning in non-wine sections at supermarkets. No longer. "We position it as wine, and it's packaged like wine," he said.What's the future for Ariel and the other no-ethanol wines? Will those markets in the Near East materialize? Will Ariel and others be concentrated and shipped to fast-food outlets worldwide, to be reconstructed on site with sparkling water for a grape-based drink?
Who knows. We'll get back to Barry in another eight years.
Author: Philip E. Hiaring
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