Testing of ultrasonic vibration to speed up the remuage operation in sparkling wine production

Abstract

The research aims at providing an innovative method for remuage, testing the use of ultrasonic vibrations induced directly into the bottles to accelerate the process. This ultrasonic technique generates vibrations that cause the lees to move more swiftly along the slope of the tilted bottle, leading to a quicker accumulation of lees in the bottleneck. The efficacy of the method was measured using also image analysis and the effects on the wine were evaluated using sensory analysis. The implementation of the tested system showed significant time savings during the remuage process (2.5 h for the remuage process), without negatively impacting the sensory qualities of the wine produced (no statistically significant differences at 99.9% compared to traditional remuage methods). Moreover, the manuscript discussed the internal strengths and weaknesses, along with external opportunities and threats, that the research outputs encounter while the potential implementation of the prototype for ultrasonic remuage. In the future, a remuage prototype can be envisaged that can handle multiple batches of bottles, such as a conversion kit for existing riddling machines. This would provide a cost-effective and efficient solution for wineries looking to optimize their sparkling wine production.