Jet Technologies to Help Australian Winemakers Measure the Tipping Point Between a Good and Bad Bottle of Wine
Jet Technologies has partnered with the global wine closure solutions provider Vinventions to deliver a new solution that gives Australian winemakers control of their oxygen management in real time to ensure they are delivering the best wine drinking experience to their customers.
The portable NomaSense O2 analyser allows winemakers to measure oxygen levels in the winery, including oxygen dissolved in wine and in gas phases. Oxygen can be measured at every stage of the winemaking process, including during the bottling stage, whether that’s within bottles or a Bag-in-Box® product.
“Oxygen and gas have a big role to play in creating the sensory profile of wine, including the aromas, structure and colour, and can be the difference between a good and a bad wine,” explained Daniel Malki, General Manager, Jet Technologies. “It is vital that Australian winemakers have strategies and the right tools in place to manage oxygen and gas, so they are best-placed to deliver their customers the highest quality wine possible.
“Many Australian winemakers face the challenge of extending the shelf life of their wine, particularly those who export,” added Daniel. “Many wines can be opened two or more years after bottling, therefore, for quality control purposes, winemakers need to stay on top of measuring and managing the evolution of their wines in terms of oxygen and gas levels.”
Being able to measure and control oxygen and gas levels with the NomaSense O2 from the beginning of the winemaking process right through to it being tasted by the customer is a big advantage for winemakers. These non-destructive real-time measurements offer superior accuracy over samples taken from the cellar and moved to a laboratory where oxygen will be measured several hours later and may have used up a significant proportion of the oxygen present.
The NomaSense O2 technology from Vinventions is based on luminescence combined with the use of remote sensors. It is one of the few devices available to the wine industry that allows the measurement of both dissolved and headspace oxygen, and that also provides accurate total package oxygen (TPO) values.
The analyser’s measuring capabilities also match analytical and research laboratories’ requirements in terms of trace analysis for measuring permeabilities of different package types (especially wine closures) or monitoring very low dissolved oxygen concentrations during ageing steps.
The NomaSense O2 was validated through a scientific collaboration with global institutes and many wine research centres are now using it to better understand oxygen’s influence on wine development.