From Federico Martinotti to Aphromate Plus: the isobaric tank becomes increasingly Smart
In 1895, Federico Martinotti, director of the Royal Enological Station of Asti, patented in Turin the first system of refermentation in large pressurized containers for the production of sparkling wines in a simpler, cheaper, and safer way than what was done with bottle refermented wines. Since then, the Martinotti method or Charmat method - named after Eugène Charmat, the French industrialist who engineered and commercialized isobaric tank refermentation systems in 1910 - allows the production of sparkling and semi-sparkling wines worldwide, characterized by gustatory freshness as well as aromatic intensity and immediacy.
A process that takes place within a hermetically sealed environment, however, presents some difficulties as control is generally done indirectly on parameters such as temperature or overpressure, which say nothing about the quality of the product or the state of the yeast performing its metabolism. Relying solely on these parameters, whose measurement and interpretation often prove to be imprecise, is evidently not enough as it does not allow timely management of any fermentation difficulties, nutrient deficiencies, or defects such as those related to reduction states and the production of some undesirable sulfur compounds in the final stages of sparkling wine formation.
After developing ADCF, the first smart system for dynamic control of alcoholic fermentation, Parsec has devised the ideal solution to manage in real-time the process and risks of refermentation in isobaric tanks precisely and reliably.
Parsec's Aphromate Plus system allows describing the kinetics of sugar consumption and CO2 production in fermentation and refermentation in autoclave. To achieve this, a series of specific algorithms were developed, based on a vast amount of experimentally collected data, that predictively describe and analyze the refermentation phases in an open tank and the sparkling wine formation in a closed tank.
Thanks to the integrated control of all the parameters involved and their processing through exclusive self-learning calculation methods (AI), the system calculates in real-time and continuously and accurately not only the sugar concentration but also their consumption kinetics at every moment of refermentation.
Thus, the producer or winemaker can visualize and manage even remotely, through a simple app accessible from a smartphone, the situation of all the autoclaves/isobaric tanks in the winery, evaluate the progress of the sparkling wine formation, and prevent any type of problem.
Aphromate Plus is not just a measuring instrument but an interactive and adaptive tool capable of setting goals and control parameters, then automatically intervening at the most appropriate times and ways with agitation, cooling or heating, oxygenation, and dosing of nutrients or tirage sugars operations to allow the yeast to work in the best possible conditions to benefit the final quality of the product.
An advanced system that manages a complex process, making the production of sparkling wines easy and safe, perhaps just as Federico Martinotti intended in his projects and goals.
Discover more about Parsec: https://parsecsrl.net/fr/
