mardi 24 août 2010
VENDANGES 2010 : BRANE SE MET AU TRI OPTIQUE
Par Corinne Conroy, mardi 24 août 2010 à 15:34 :: Accueil
La révolution au chai!
THE 2010 HARVEST: BRANE ADOPTS AN OPTICAL GRAPE-SORTING SYSTEM
Par Mary, mardi 24 août 2010 à 09:56 :: Accueil
A revolution has overtaken the cellar!
Château Brane-Cantenac has been brimming with projects in 2010, more specifically in the areas of grape sorting and the environment.
Sorting quality has always been of utmost importance on the property - the first sorting table was adapted at Brane in the 1970s. And in 2008, the Viniclean system was introduced. But this year, Henri Lurton decided to radically modify the receiving of the harvest in order to take advantage of a brand new technology: optical sorting. Now, grapes are transferred from the vines to the cellar using the Air Tec Wine system, the goal of which is to prevent crushing. It is based on the use of small low-floor bins equipped with an automatic compressed-air suspension system. These bins are fit with wide low-inflated tires. They are emptied slowly through vibration. The advantages of this system are that it preserves the integrity of the grape berries and limits oxidation since the grapes are treated rapidly within the half-hour after they are collected (less handling versus the crate system).
When they arrive at the cellar, the harvested grapes are sorted manually on two tables arranged in parallel. After a new destemmer, a Vistalys optical sorting line was brought into the receiving area. All of the destemmed harvest’s constituents are filmed by a camera. An ultra-fast computer analyzes the resulting image. Jets of air specifically remove all impurities. It is therefore possible to sort not only by color (stem fragments, shot berries, etc.) but also by the health of the berry (withered or affected by Botrytis). This revolutionary process achieves a state-of-the-art sorting quality. It is reliable, fast, consistent and progressive.
Having always been highly attentive to the environmental impact of the viticultural practices used on the property, Henri Lurton decided to farm 10 hectares of the vineyard in accordance with organic farming principles starting in the spring of 2010. A conversion protocol was drafted with the help of specialized advisors from the Chamber of Agriculture. All farming operations were conducted in accordance with the principles of this type of farming. The initial results are very encouraging and suggest that these practices may be rolled out to a larger surface area. In addition, the treatments applied to the other areas of the vineyards were largely performed with organic-approved products. The reduction of phytochemical inputs has been optimized, as has employee safety.
