I went to a Cavitus presentation at Etude today. It is an Australian company that is about to get going here in cooperation with WineSecrets. The basic MO is that they fill a barrel with 60 degree Celsius water and insert an ultrasound wand for 5-8 minutes depending on the age and condition of the barrel. The water is then tranferred to the next barrel. They claim it only takes a couple gallons per barrel on a 100 barrel run. Part of the pitch is near complete tartrate removal from not just the surface but the pores and joints – thus extending the effective life of the barrel, etc. Given the cost, $70/barrel, I’m not sure how compelling this function is. The more important claim is that the process kills all microbes in the wood up to a depth of 14 mm. If this proves out, I can imagine a lot of cases where a $70 treatment would look pretty good, since I’m not aware of an alternative that can go after subsurface bugs like this. Besides the obvious brett outbreak scenario, I think I would consider it anytime I have to bring in used barrels.
All their data was presented in comparison with hot water gamajet followed by ozone treatment. Of course, the ultrasound treatment was the winner in all the trials presented. Some of these trials were at CA wineries, but they didn’t name names. Anyone out there with first hand experience with this technology?
I saw this system at the Unified Symposium back in January. And I read about it in an article in Practical Winery and Vineyard awhile ago, and it sounded pretty interesting - claims to be more effective than ozone, steam, etc. The “Reign of Terroir” website actually has a lot of info on the system and the trials in California - I just did a search for “Cavitus” on their site and came up with quite a few pages:
According to the Reign of Terroir articles, Constellation’s facility in Gonzales was one of the places the system was tested, and more recently it was tested at Kendall-Jackson. Haven’t heard of anyone actually using it in practice though. Hope this helps.
$70 a barrel what about your new french oak @ $1200.
Of course you would not necessarily need to use this on that but it would help when it becomes a once used and so forth to prong long its longevity so you get the most out of that $1200.
I like the idea of not using a lot of water and if you time it to happen before you swell barrels/ incorporate it into the barrel regime at your winery you could potentially save a lot of water.
A friend at a neighboring winery went to a demo of it and kind of filled me in on the technology and I have seen it at symposium before. I think its rather cost inhibited if you want to buy a unit, other wise its a mobile truck so… could you imagine having a 100 brls to clean at 6 min a brl? 600min at the very least = 10hrs… long day.
As with all new technology the more people start to use it the better it gets the more the price gets driven down.
the cynic in me finds it interesting that they beat out all the competition in their studies… especially interesting that they conducted these studies with no 3rd party auditor.
We have effectively gotten rid of Brett in a couple of our barrels with steam, and the winery I worked at in '06 had gotten rid of a pretty bad Brett infestation with steam as well. I can’t imagine any but the richest wineries would go for $70/bbl.
No first hand knowledge but I’ve read that steam can get pretty deep into the sub-surface - exactly how deep I forget but IIRC it was deeper than most brett and other critters go.
Or such were the claims.
Cheaper, too.
Best, Jim
I use steam as well and have more confidence in it than I do in the gamajet and ozone treatment that these guys used for comparisons. I’ve never been very sure how deep into the wood the steam was effective. Time dependent, of course. A quick search of PWV and WBM didn’t provide clear guidance.
I wonder also about the cost to ship barrels to where they have the machine, or the cost of having the machine come to the winery for cleaning… can’t be cheap unless you have a LOT of barrels or team up with other wineries. Moving barrels around ain’t cheap.
Where does one find good used barrels to use if not in one’s own program already?
Wine Business Classifieds is a place to start. I’ve seen the used barrel market (once used) range from $200 per down to not being able to give them away.