Technical Yearbook 2024

FIGURE 7. Data acquired from the e-aphrom displaying pressure values from separate sensors.

started to increase around the 27th of March. Around the 24th of April, the increase took place slower, reaching a plateau of over seven bars around the 3rd of July. This is a strong indicator that, at the end of March, the chemical reaction corresponding to the secondary fermentation started, thus producing more carbon dioxide. Although the winemaker can assert with higher certainty, the process has ended at the end of June (or at the beginning of July). Since the e-aphrom is designed to monitor sparkling wines made via the traditional method, the period that this wine was in secondary fermentation corresponded to the expected three months. The user can access the temperature values in real time, as all changes will be recorded and exhibited on the dashboard at the same time as the pressure values are displayed. From this graphic, one can see that the temperature started to increase at the end of May until around 18°C, probably because the environmental temperature rose due to summer approaching in the northern hemisphere. This allowed the producer to apply cooling systems to decrease the temperature to approximately 14.5°C.

Conclusion Real-time monitoring is an important technology that is increasingly in demand in winemaking. It allows for greater efficiency during the different winemaking processes, enabling preventive monitoring and a faster response to any anomaly detected. The comparison with historical values allows for improvement in the quality of the final product.  The winemaker could also retrieve information from separate wineries and compare the values simultaneously. Figure 7 displays this feature. The two curves were taken from two sensors placed in different bottles. The duration of the second fermentation process was approximately the same. However, slightly different pressure values were displayed, which is expected since, in the traditional methodology, the chemical reaction takes place in individual bottles, thus each one representing its own chemical system.

References https://www.wineland.co.za/vine-and-wine-innovation-watch-e-aphrom/

For more information, contact Lida Malandra at lida.malandra@enartis.co.za.

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TECHNICAL YEARBOOK 2024