don’t overheat during vintage!

Winery refrigeration assessment and planning

Refrigeration is one of the most important services in the winery and is also the largest energy consumer. I combine experience as a process engineer with the many vintages I have done as a winemaker to assess your current refrigeration system to ensure it can deliver your current and future needs.

Cooling systems have many demands placed on them over vintage, including cooling of incoming fruit, cold-settling juice and fermentation control. Outside of vintage there is cold stabilisation and tank temperature management to consider.

Refrigeration units are often forgotten until things overheat during vintage.  An increase in fruit intake or a change in vintage timing can have unforeseen effects such as warm juice or poor fermentation control that can have significant impacts on wine quality.

Energy is a significant cost for any winery – either purchased or generated on-site. I can help you plan activities to manage energy use and cooling demand.

I have designed and installed systems for small/medium wineries, including assessment of demand, piping design, temperature control, and remote alarms. I can supply temperature controllers, control valves, and systems to integrate the controllers and allow for alert messages.

The assessment services can be provided remotely using video conferencing and offsite calculation and can be very cost effective. Alternatively, for more complex projects I can visit on site (costs may apply).