Winesecrets has developed a new answer to the challenge of removing smoke taint from wine.  Differential Filtration (DF) for the removal of smoke taint compounds from wine combines ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) to remove both the glycosylated (bound) and free forms of smoke taint compounds. DF represents an important advance over the current use of “RO-only” since using RO alone historically has only removed the free forms of smoke taint.

DF employs three steps within each treatment round:

1. UF protects the colloidal and polyphenolic structure of the wine by separating it from low color permeate which contains both bound and free guiacol compounds.
2. RO traps the bound smoke taint from the low color permeate while allowing the free guiacol compounds to pass.
3. A carbon block array removes the free smoke taint contaminants remaining in the low color permeate.  The low color permeate is then reunited with the original high color fraction of the wine.

Two trials using DF at the bench scale (Test Track) reduced guaiacol and syringol, two key markers of smoke taint, by 85% and 91% respectively. Successive runs of DF have shown further reduction of smoke taint markers by a similar order of magnitude. Cellar scale trials showed slightly lower reductions.  Runs at both the bench and production scales reduced guaiacol to concentrations below the sensory threshold after two rounds of treatment. It is noteworthy that the bound forms of guaiacol and syringol concentrations were reduced by 83.6% and 77.6% respectively at the Test Track scale; 58.5% and 38.2% respectively at the Cellar scale.

For more information, read the full white paper concerning these trials.

This promising method may be assessed using Winesecrets Test Track, or with their cellar-scale filtration systems.