Plant and process for obtaining clear must from grapes and for vinification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11807839-B2
Application number	US-202017112444-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2020
Priority date	Dec 23, 2013
Publication date	Nov 7, 2023
Grant date	Nov 7, 2023

Abstract

A process for obtaining clear must from grape berries includes feeding grape berries into a plant, controlled addition of adjuvant and/or clarifying substances to said grape berries while the grape berries are still at least partially intact, centrifuging said grape berries, in such a way as to separate the liquid phase or must from the solid phase with at least one centrifugal separator device, extracting and collecting the solid phase in a respective storage container and settling and/or flotation of the liquid phase or must so that the liquid phase of said must and the solid residue are separated.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for obtaining clear must from grape berries, the process comprising the steps of:
feeding grape berries into a plant;
controlled addition of adjuvant and/or clarifying substances to said grape berries;
centrifuging said grape berries, in such a way as to separate a liquid phase from a solid phase with at least one centrifugal separator device, the liquid phase being an entire amount of liquid removed from the grape berries fed into the plant in a tank;
extracting and collecting the solid phase in a respective storage container;
storing the liquid phase obtained from the grape berries fed into the plant in a tank; and
settling and/or flotation of the liquid phase or must in the tank so that the liquid phase of said must and the solid residue are separated.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said adjuvant and/or clarifying substances are selected from the group consisting of gelatine, proteins and cationic flocculants.

3. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of controlled addition of enzymes to the grape berries, said step of controlled addition of enzymes being upstream of the step of controlled addition of adjuvant and/or clarifying substances to the grape berries.

4. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of destemming or crushing-destemming to separate said grape berries from the stem or to separate the grape berries from the stem and press crush the grape berries, said step of destemming or crushing-destemming being upstream of the step of controlled addition of adjuvant and/or clarifying substances to the grape berries.

5. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of fermenting said must, said step of fermenting being downstream of the settling and/or flotation step of the liquid phase or must.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the process is applied in the separation of the solid parts of the grape berries (skin and seeds) after the oenological processes that foresee a maceration step of white and red grapes.

7. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising separating the grape berries from the stems or separating the grape berries from the stems and crushing the grape berries in a destemming or crushing-destemming device upstream of the at least one centrifugal separator device.

8. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of controlled addition of enzymes to a homogenizer tank upstream of centrifuging said grape berries.

9. The process according to claim 8 , further comprising transferring contents of the homogenizer tank directly to a separator for centrifuging said grape berries.

10. A process for obtaining clear must from grape berries, the process comprising the steps of:
feeding grape berries into a plant;
storing the grape berries in a homogenizer tank;
controlled addition of adjuvant and/or clarifying substances to said grape berries;
centrifuging said grape berries, in such a way as to separate the liquid phase or must from the solid phase with at least one centrifugal separator device, the liquid phase being an entire amount of liquid removed from the grape berries fed into the plant in a tank; and
extracting and collecting the solid phase in a respective storage container.

11. The process according to claim 10 , wherein said adjuvant and/or clarifying substances are selected from the group consisting of gelatine, proteins and cationic flocculants.

12. The process according to claim 10 , further comprising the step of adding enzymes to the grape berries,
wherein said step of adding the enzymes is upstream of the step of controlled addition of adjuvant and/or clarifying substances to the grape berries.

13. The process according to claim 10 , further comprising the step of destemming or crushing-destemming to separate said grape berries from the stem or to separate the grape berries from the stem and press crush the grape berries, said step of destemming or crushing-destemming being upstream of the step of controlled addition of adjuvant and/or clarifying substances to the grape berries.

14. The process according to claim 10 , further comprising the step of fermenting said must, said step of fermenting being downstream of the settling and/or flotation step of the liquid phase or must.

15. The process according to claim 10 , wherein the process is applied in the separation of the solid parts of the grape berries (skin and seeds) after the oenological processes that foresee a maceration step of white and red grapes.

16. The process according to claim 10 , further comprising separating the grape berries from the stems or separating the grape berries from the stems and crushing the grape berries in a destemming or crushing-destemming device upstream of the at least one centrifugal separator device.

17. The process according to claim 10 , wherein the step of controlled addition of adjuvant and/or clarifying substances to the grape berries is downstream of the homogenizer tank.

18. The process according to claim 10 , further comprising adding enzymes to the grape berries while in the homogenizer tank.

19. A process for obtaining clear must from grape berries, comprising:
feeding grape berries into a plant;
adding at least one of a non-enzymatic adjuvant and clarifying substances to said grape berries;
centrifuging said grape berries to separate the liquid phase from the solid phase, the liquid phase being an entire amount of liquid removed from the grape berries fed into the plant in a tank; and
extracting and collecting the solid phase in a storage container.

Assignees

• Alfa Laval Corp Ab

Inventors

• Ferrarini Roberto
• Rapilly Carole
• Franzoso Marco

Classifications

• C12G1/0203 Primary

  by microbiological or enzymatic treatment · CPC title

• A23N1/02

  combined with disintegrating or cutting · CPC title

• C12G1/005

  Methods or means to load or unload, to weigh or to sample the vintage; Replenishing; Separation of the liquids from the solids before or after fermentation · CPC title

• C12G1/02

  Preparation of must from grapes; Must treatment and fermentation · CPC title