Abstract for presentation at Chemeca 2005

Choosing an alternative tartrate stabilisation method for wine using MCDA methods

  • Miss Lin Lin Low, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5005, Australia
  • Dr Chris Colby, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5005, Australia
  • A/Prof Brian O'Neill, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5005, Australia
  • Dr Chris Ford, School of Agriculture and Wine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5005, Australia
  • Mr Jim Godden, Berri Estates Winery, PO Box 238, Berri SA 5343, Australia
  • Mr Mark Gishen, The Australian Wine Research Institute, PO Box 197, Glen Osmond SA 5064, Australia

    • Cold stabilisation is widely used in the Australian wine industry to prevent precipitation of tartrate salts in bottled product. It involves cooling the wine close to its freezing point for a period up to a week. However, the method has disadvantages which include high operating costs, long processing time and large quantities of saline wastewater. Alternative methods are available but inadequate information exists to make conclusive comparisons.

    Hardy Wine Company (HWC), one of the major wine producers in Australia, has initiated a project to investigate alternative tartrate stabilization processes, including contact stabilization, cross-flow membranes and electrodialysis, suitable for commercial application at HWC wineries. A comprehensive review of technical, economic and operation merits of these processes has been performed. For comparison purposes, a decision-making technique new to the wine industry is being employed: Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). MCDA enables values and weights to be assigned to evaluation criteria, so they can be combined in a systematic manner to produce a single measure for ranking.

    This paper discusses the use of the methodology for assessing various tartrate stabilisation technologies and presents results from the three most widely employed MCDA methods (weighted average method, ELECTRE and PROMETHEE).

    Conference Organiser - ICMS Pty Ltd