Microflex
During the week of April 21-24, Okanagan Crush Pad Winery and Henry of Pelham Winery played host to a demonstration seminar of new filtration technology co-sponsored by cellar•tek supplies and DIEMME Enologica from Lugo, Italy. Representatives from wineries in both regions attended to learn more about the new filter. The MicroFlex filter technology was introduced in 2014 after extensive testing in several large Italian wineries with red and white wines near the DIEMME manufacturing plant in Lugo.
The concept of the MicroFlex filter combines absolute rated membrane filter cartridges with proprietary software developed by DIEMME to provide gentle, one-pass filtration of a settled wine down to 1 micron. By using a large number of cartridges (12, 24 or 48 depending on the model) the MicroFlex filter is able to filter wines at a high flow rate with very low differential pressure (D.P.) across the membranes of the cartridges. This results in a filtered wine ready for bottling without any of the compromised organoleptic properties often associated with other methods of filtration. The software continually monitors the D.P. during filtration and can automatically speed up or slow down the flow rates to keep the D.P. very low. The software can also determine when the cartridges are too dirty for a gentle filtration, at which point it automatically stops the filter and pushes out the wine from the filter using inert gas to prevent oxidation. After emptying the wine it automatically performs either an intermediate rinsing or full washing of the cartridges before returning the wine to continue filtration. This all happens without operator input so the cellar staff are freed up to conduct other duties during the filtration process.
George Oake from Quails’ Gate Estate Winery is an existing user. “The Microflex allows me to filter our wines in a gentle and thorough manner from 42 NTUs down to 0.4 NTUs: ready for bottle in one pass without stripping colour, flavour or aroma," he says. "The low labour and material costs make this the ideal filter for our winery. The Microflex allows us to eliminate the use of DE in the cellar while improving the quality of filtration. Reduced cost, reduced labour, reduced time, reduced water, safer, more gentle, better end product. It’s a no brainer.”
