New World Winemaker Blog

OENOTOOLS is the latest smartphone and tablet application to help winemakers make essential calculations during wine production.

This free application developed by OENOBRANDS contains the most widely used calculation and conversion tools required in the winery. The development of this application is in line with Oenobrands’ strategy of offering winemakers innovative, advanced winemaking solutions.

The first version of OENOTOOLS allows the winemaker to:

-Calculate the quantity of any powder, liquid or gas additive to add to a tank. For instance, OENOTOOLS will determine the amount of gum arabic, enzymes, tannins or any fining agent to add to a tank from a powder or liquid source.

-Determine the amount of sulfite to add according to the winemaker’s selected source (various concentrations or gas) to reach a set total, free and/or active SO₂target.

-Convert the common measuring units used for grape juice and wine: for example, liters into gallons, brix into sugar concentration, etc.

-Establish the conditions and flow rate for deoxygenation and decarbonization using nitrogen stripping.

The OENOTOOLS app provides a range of quick and accurate winemaking calculation tools in four languages: English, Spanish, French and Italian.

Get the OENOTOOLS App from the Apple iTunes App Store and Android Market by scanning the QR code below on your iPhone or Android device.

Dr. Patrice Pellerin is the Technical Manager for Oenobrands.

The cooperative Vinicola de Villarobledo has been the only winery from La Mancha region to win a Gold award at wine contest – Nuevo Vino 2011 – held in Madrid on the 15^th of June this year. This was the first time the cooperative winery presented a wine to this contest.

Martin Pardin (technical director of the cooperative) explains he wanted to innovate and create a very complex and unique red wine, adapted to modern demand for fruitiness, roundness and complexity in red wine. Grapes from Syrah, Tempranillo and Garnacha were partially destemmed, crushed and barrel fermented separately in 3^rd fill French oak barrels. Martin used an extraction enzyme and a new yeast from Oenobrands, Anchor Exotics SPH, in all barrels. This yeast is an interspecies hybrid between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces paradoxus. It is the only yeast of its kind worldwide. Fermentation took ten days at temperature range 18-27 °C, with four hand pigeage daily. For yeast nutrition, Biovin (bio-regulator of La Littorale) has been added after density of 1040. Martin was very happy with the results obtained with Anchor Exotics SPH as it satisfied his need to create a “highly fruity and complex red wine, different from a standard red wine of La Mancha region”.

Malolactic fermentation started spontaneously immediately after alcoholic fermentation and was completed within one month. The wines from the three varieties were blended and stored for five months. No fining was applied before bottling and Mannostab (Laffort) was added to secure tartrate stability.

Martin is very happy with the recognition this award gives to his winery and region, since all the other wines awarded came from other prestigious Spanish wine regions. He plans to increase production with his approach and will continue use of Anchor Exotics SPH as “a perfect tool to help him achieve complexity and fruitiness “. At the moment the wine is only available for sale in Spain but an extension of production in 2011 will allow the winery to have the wine available for export markets.

Patrice Pellerin is the technical manager for Oenobrands.