WHY FILTER USING MICROFILTRATION (Cross-Flow)?
A question many have asked and to which the answer is a matter of preference and taste. The benefits of microfiltration are numerous. The more pertinent question however should be “How does it affect the character of my wine?” Due to the level of filtration achieved by a properly functioning microfiltration system (0.2 m to 0.4 m to be compared to an average of 0.6 m during D.E. filtration) it has been said that cross-flow systems strip the wine of certain high end molecular weight compounds. Now this so called “stripping” affect is purely theoretical and actual test work on this “stripping” phenomenon has yet to be published, however many winemakers are of the belief that red wine is affected considerably during a cross-flow filtration. We believe a lot of this “stripping” is due to the excessive use of the wine as a cleaner during the process i.e. 20:1 cross-flow across the membranes in order to achieve longer run times by reducing fouling. We have challenged this belief and we belie
