Food gases
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OXIGEN salud supplies a whole range of gases to produce and package wine and sparkling wine.
To improve wine quality, different nitrogen, oxygen and CO2 treatments can be used in the various wine-making processes.
The climatology of recent years has featured an increase in high temperatures which represent new risks to the process of transporting grapes inside containers. OXIGEN salud covers this problem by mixing dry ice pellets (solid carbon dioxide) with the just-harvested grapes, thus regulating temperature and avoiding possible oxidisation.
Liquid CO2 regulates temperature. Therefore, must in storage does not start fermentation until needed. The storage of must in warehouses before fermentation is a common practice in many wine cellars. Like this, there is enough time for the solids that remain in the juice to decant before transforming must sugars into alcohol.
It is crucial to verify the levels of dissolved CO2 in wine before packaging it. If the quantity falls below optimal levels, carbonation is applied to adjust it, which means injecting carbon dioxide to reach adequate levels of CO2 and ensuring the quality of the wine.
Oxygen produces the following reactions in the wine-making process:
The more control and knowledge of the effects of oxygen during the wine-making process, the easier it is to obtain the desired result.
This process controls one of the most important parameters of ageing: the oxygen contribution to wine. Controlled oxidation is to be distinguished from an uncontrolled addition of oxygen (decanting) because of the vastly different effects it represents.
Thus, a controlled contribution of oxygen is helpful in stabilising colour, diminishing the vegetable character and avoiding the taste “reduced”, even though the reductive power has increased. In contrast, an uncontrolled addition of oxygen means easing the process of evolution and ageing.
In summary, microoxygenation must be integrated in consonance with other ageing factors to reach the desired balance in a well-defined product.
Adding oxygen is highly recommended in musts rich in phenolic compounds with unstable colour.
The resulting wines are more resistant and have stable, clear colours without the need for sulphur dioxide (SO2) during vinification.
Alcoholic fermentation is an anaerobic biological process in which there is a complete absence of oxygen that transforms the must glucose into ethylic alcohol.
It happens during the first phase of must transformation, in which most of the yeast consumes all the oxygen. However, the polyphenolic compounds also start consuming.
The polyphenol reactions stabilise colour and limit and contrast the birth of sulphurous odours. Like this, cleaner wine aromas are stabilised and developed.
Therefore, the controlled addition of oxygen has a key role in wine fermentation and its properties.
Nitrogen in cellars has the following applications:
Carbon dioxide (CO2) in standard temperature and pressure conditions is a gas that becomes liquid after applying cold and pressure. It eventually reaches a solid state after cooling and compressing, and it is known as dry ice.
OXIGEN salud supplies and recommends using dry ice during grape harvest; specifically to transport and store grapes until the wine-making process starts.
It is important to transport grapes with dry ice pellets to prevent alterations due to climate during transport.
Dry ice is supplied in isothermal containers to ensure bunch transport at a controlled temperature.
Carbon dioxide snow, CO2 in a liquid state, ensures a correct inerting and cooling of grapes during transport in the acceptance hopper, before the stalk separator, in the press and the maceration or fermentation tank.
OXIGEN salud sells a diffuser which directly connects to the bottle and produces carbon dioxide snow. This solution allows for a simple and visual dosage through a diffuser with a high-pressure flexible hose, a cone and its corresponding safety device.
Thus, the customer can produce carbon dioxide snow in situ from liquid CO2 and create a carbon gas cloud to optimise and rationalise CO2 consumption.
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