How will this affect my wine's flavor?

With RO work we are targeting smaller molecules to remove and the larger flavor compounds do not pass through the membranes so there is no loss of flavor etc.

How much associated loss should I expect?

Varies by technology and winery specific transfer protocol, but usually 10-15 gallons. There are options we can discuss for minimizing this for multiple lot transfers.

What is the difference between reverse osmosis and nanofiltration?

In general, the molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) for each of these types of tangential filtration differentiates them. Reverse osmosis (RO) will allow particles at a molecular weight of 100 or below to pass through its membrane (MWCO = 100). Nanofiltration have a MWCO of 1,000, allowing molecules of 1,000 MW to pass through the membrane.

In terms of wine treatment, RO allows water, alcohol and small volatiles including acetic acid to pass through its membrane. The acetic acid is absorbed by a resin and the other components are returned to the wine.

Nanofiltration allows water, alcohol and organic acids to pass through the membrane. The absorption resin removes acetic acid but also retains other acids including tartaric and malic. VA removal with nanofiltration requires an "acid add-back" to replace the natural grape acids lost to the absorption resin.

What is the effect of high pressure on wine?

There is no documented evidence that high pressure has any effect on wine. At issue is the method of achieving the high pressure required for reverse osmosis and nanofiltration. In both RO and nanofiltration, a pump is employed to pressurize the wine and create the required osmotic pressure to move small molecules across a membrane for tangential flow filtration.

RO requires pressures of 600 psi. In contrast, "nano" requires pressures of over 200 psi. Make no mistake, both are very high pressure in terms of winemaking processing. Through careful pump selection, professional operation and minimization of treatment volume, Winesecrets mitigates the marginal difference associated with pressurizing wine for RO vs. "nano."

Is TTB compliance something to be concerned about?

All of our services are TTB approved and within compliance, and for "non-standard" services that do require prior approval, our compliance specialist can help facilitate that to ensure no risk on the part of our customer

Is there a risk of my wine heating?

The RO creates heat which is a factor especially in cases of high VA that will require a long run time. We make sure that the facility where we will be working will have proper chilling capacity.