GRAPE processing has become much easier for one of the region’s wineries with the arrival of state of the art technology.
Brand Laira Coonawarra welcomed the optical sorter four weeks ago to assist with this year’s vintage.
The high quality grape sorter is around five to 10pc more efficient in dealing with contaminated grapes than the winery’s previous system.
“It is more advanced and less time consuming than the normal system and we are the second winery in Penola to introduce it, ” Brand’s Laira winemaker Peter Weinberg said.
Processing five to seven tonnes of grapes an hour, Mr Weinberg said it has been an asset during the devastating black frost which hit Coonawarra in November.
“It efficiently sorts and disposes of the unusable berries,” he said.
Cellar supervisor Paul Blackburn explained the process included screening berries under a high speed camera.
“The scanner detects the colour and size of the berry and can identify anything that is not a berry, spitting out unwanted sticks and unripened berries,” Mr Blackburn said.
The equipment uses a unique conveying system to shift de-stemmed grapes past a sorting module where a scanner takes a photograph of the grapes as they pass.
Around 100 air jets blow bad grapes off of the belt, while the remaining berries are sorted.
Mr Weinberg said it had been a solid investment, with fermentation already under way.
