Category: Fresh Off The Press

Vinmetrica at the Winemaker Magazine’s annual conference. June 1-3 2017, Ithaca, New York.

Vinmetrica was at the Winemaker Magazine Conference, held at the Statler Hotel on the Cornell University campus, amid the beautiful Finger Lakes Region of upstate New York. Every year the conference hosts hundreds of wine and cider enthusiasts who are passionate about their craft. As always there were numerous presentations and workshops on vineyard practices, wine making, and of course, quality management Keep Reading More!

Introducing one of Vinmetrica’s newest products:  the Dissolved Oxygen  (DO) Probe, a tool for fast and accurate measurement of dissolved oxygen in your wine. Why measure DO in your wine? Oxygen plays a major role in winemaking, having both good and negative effects on the final product. Dissolved oxygen is helpful in small amounts, but too much could lead to an undesirable bottle of wine. By just taking a few measurements you can quickly take control of that. Keep Reading More!

My career has been one of analysis. Yes, I’m one of those analytical types who dissects much of his daily experience into subjects for further investigation. Never could really get the hang of politics, religion or film criticism, but I do take an almost indecent interest in the technical workings of things. That curiosity led me into a career as a Ph.D. analytical chemist – and ultimately, into wine analysis, and making products for that endeavor.

As a 20-year veteran amateur winemaker, I knew there were better ways for home winemakers (and small wineries) to get the basic chemistry information they need for their craft. High on the “annoyance list was sulfite analysis. From desperately slogging my way through color test strips and unreliable Ripper set-ups, both commercial and homemade, I was motivated to find a better way to get that information. Keep Reading More!

Do you want to take your winemaking to the next level? We hope you already measure important parameters like free SO₂ (sulfites), pH, titratable acidity and malic acid, but residual sugar has always been tricky, expensive, and/or subjective when trying to get a quantitative answer. Now Vinmetrica introduces its NEW Residual Sugar reagent kit.  Using the pH meter you already have, you can now get accurate and reliable residual sugar data. Keep Reading More!

Do you wait for the completion of Malolactic fermentation before adding sulfite to your wine? This reduces the overall acidity of your wine, leading to a smooth, softer mouth feel and a pleasant complexity in nose and taste. If malic acid levels are not reduced below around 0.1 g/L, there is significant risk that fermentation will start up again in the bottle, popping corks and/or making that beautiful red you so lovingly put up in your cellar turn fizzy! So it’s important to have accurate information on your malic acid levels. Keep Reading More!

The beauty of winemaking is that no matter which side of your brain you use more often, it encompasses both; bringing together the art and the science of winemaking. But here is the real question. How many of our readers make their wine in a scientific fashion? Noting every single detail about your sulfite levels, color of your wine, the taste, the smell and even the location it is stored in? Or are you the type of winemaker that adds sulfite without measuring or doesn’t take notes and just does “what the wine tells them to do”? Keep Reading More!

Sulfur Dioxide, or SO2, is a chemical compound used by winemakers to help keep their wine protected from the negative effects of oxygen exposure as well as spoilage microorganisms. Free SO2 is important for determining preservation ability. Total SO2 is not as important for home winemakers because it is usually measured to fulfill export regulatory requirements. Regular testing for Free SO2 allows for the winemaker to make the necessary additions to the wine to avoid spoilage. Vinmetrica’s SC-100A and SC-300 test for not only Free SO2 but Total SO2 as well, when you purchase separately our 1N NaOH solution. For more information about Free SO2 and Total SO2, check out this link to the MoreWine article: SO2 Management by Shea A.J. Comfort. http://morewinemaking.com/public/pdf/so2.pdf

We’ve been getting a lot of buzz from cider makers the past few weeks asking if our units can test SO2 levels in cider, and they do! We have several customers that use our various instruments to test their cider for SO2 with great success. Using the same method as found in our product manuals, you can test your cider for SO2 the same way you would test your wine!

How does the Vinmetrica SC-300 SO2 and pH/TA Analyzer Kit compare to other Free SO2 testers on the market? Daniel Pambianchi has done some benchmark comparisons between several Free SO2 testers available. He has created a full report outlining the methods, results and his conclusions. Thank you Daniel for your report. We are happy to share this with our customers. Keep Reading More!

By now you may have heard that we just released our newest product, the SC-50 MLF Analyzer. We have been working on this for nearly two years, mainly to be sure that the product is easy to use, reliable and accurate. The approach we took was to have the device measure the increase in CO2 pressure that occurs when malic acid is converted to lactic acid, a process we call ‘Biopressure’. This increase in pressure is then converted to an electrical current that the SC-100 or -300 SO2 analyzers can pick up and display. Pretty simple really, but the devil is in the details as they say. And quite honestly we expect the methods (but not the hardware) to improve over time as we learn new ways to make it even faster to use.

 (Chemical Structure of l-Malic Acid)

They idea of using pressure to measure malic acid in wine is not new in itself. Over 50 years ago, George Kolar of the Australian Wine Research Institute published an article entitled “Manometric Determination of l(—) Malic Acid in Grape Musts and Wines”* that described a method adapted from earlier biochemical research. This method was adopted widely during the 60s, but was eventually displaced by other analytical techniques, most notably the paper and liquid chromatographic methods, and enzymatic spectrometric assays. All of these later methods were either simpler (paper chromatography) or more accurate and suitable for commercial laboratory use. In contrast, the manometric (i.e., based on measuring gas pressure) method, while sensitive and accurate, involved complex glassware and a good deal of professional training to execute.

We believe that the SC-50 incorporates 21st century technology that makes it a pretty good manometric device that is easy to use; the Biopressure agents, reagents, and methods we have developed over the the last 2 years give Dr. Kolar’s technique an entirely new lease on life. You should be able to complete a few or a few dozen tests in 30 minutes, something that would have taken him (or probably his graduate student, poor soul) hours and hours, 50 years ago.

*Am. J. Enol. Vitic 1962 vol. 13 no. 3 99-104 http://www.ajevonline.org/content/13/3/99.abstract