In a perfect world a winery micro lab would be established in its own room, separate from any other winery or lab activities. It would have a laminar flow cabinet and dedicated personnel trained in aseptic techniques. In practice, space and budget constraints don’t always allow for this, but that shouldn’t prevent labs from adding […]
Absorbance readings taken from spectrophotometers during enzymatic analysis should be considered carefully before they are used to calculate important wine parameters. Many spectrophotometers have a photometric range up to about 3.0 absorbance, but this does not necessarily mean that any value up to 3.0 is an accurate reading. Spectrophotometers don’t directly measure absorbance, they actually […]
You use them every day for your enzymatic analysis and probably don’t think too much about them. But the quality and correct use of your disposable cuvettes are critically important for ensuring accurate enzymatic or colorimetric results. We use high quality disposable cuvettes in our NATA accredited labs, for analysis as well as for validation […]
One of the most crucial factors in enzymatic analysis is volumetric accuracy. Taking care to properly use and maintain micropipettes will save you time, money and frustration in the long run. It helps to pre-wet new pipette tips by aspirating and dispensing the liquid before pipetting. This forms a thin film on the inner wall […]
You use them every day for your enzymatic analysis and probably don’t think too much about them. But the quality and correct use of your disposable cuvettes are critically important for ensuring accurate enzymatic or colorimetric results. We use high quality disposable cuvettes in our NATA accredited labs, for analysis as well as for validation […]
SCOPE This procedure describes the method generally used to calibrate all micropipettes. Check the individual manufacturer specifications for acceptable error ranges at nominal volumes. RECOMMENDED FREQUENCY Every 3 months REAGENT REQUIREMENTS • Distilled Water PROCEDURE 1.1 Each pipette should be tested at its maximum capacity, and again at no more than 20% of its total capacity […]
Introduction Sugar-free extract is the latest unfamiliar expression to pass the lips of exporters of wine to China. This obscure test was the largest cause of wine being rejected by Chinese authorities last year (1). Below we discuss this test and make recommendations on what exporters should do to ensure that they have no technical […]
Introduction The wine you have made can be adjusted, fined, sulfured and played with for as long as you want. That is, until you lock it away in a bottle. So it’s important that the composition of your wine is exactly how you want it just prior to the bottling process. To be sure you […]
Introduction The molecular biology technique PCR has now been applied to the determination of Brettanomyces bruxellensis yeast in wine. A kit system is now available in Australia and has been used in our labs to determine the number of viable Brett yeast cells in wine with very good results. This is a rapid and very […]
Introduction We often hear our winemaker customers complain “the wine had a turbidity of less than one NTU but the bottling company charged us extra for filtration!”. This extra filtering needed at bottling is often unexpected, but there are two tests that can be done to check the condition of the wine prior to sending […]