Tools of the Trade
Sharfenberger Crushpad
Naumes Crush utilizes a state-of- the-art Crushpad to receive and process winegrapes. This ideal Crushpad is sanitary, gentle and includes extensive sorting to reduce material other than grapes (MOG), which can negatively impact wine quality. The equipment was sourced from German parent company Sharfenberger.
All equipment is made of sanitary stainless steel and tables/conveyors use vibration to convey fruit. The Destemmer (AS10) is a versatile and gentle destemmer, and can run at rates up to 10 tons per hour, although we usually run our crushline at about 2-3 tons per hour to retain fruit integrity and maximize sorting effectiveness. The Destemmer is also equipped with a roller sorter to help reject stems and jacks from the fruit stream.
Cold fruit (from our cold storage room) is received with a gentle dump into the receiving hopper. Fruit is conveyed across the whole-cluster sorting table, equipped with small slots to catch “micro MOG,” including bugs, shot berries, raisins, and other small debris. The fruit is then conveyed up the elevator to the destemmer. Once the berries are gently destemmed, they pass through the roller sorter to the berry sorting table. The berries are conveyed across this table where more MOG is removed by hand, and slots catch more “micro MOG.” After the berry sorting table, the berries are conveyed to the optical sorter, where the high-tech sorter uses cameras and computers to clean up any remaining MOG from the fruit stream. The remaining fruit is impeccably clean and whole berries remain intact.
Altogether, this crushline utilizes 4 points of sorting to yield the cleanest fruit possible. Whole berries can then be gently dumped to open top fermenters, or pumped to break some berries if crushing is desired. Naumes Crush is proud to offer this Crushpad to its clients, and excited to bring such a high-tech system to Southern Oregon.
WECO® Optical Sorter
Naumes Crush is committed to high quality winemaking and has spared no expense on a state-of- the-art, gentle crushline, including extensive sorting and Optical Sorting.
Naumes Crush utilizes the WECO® Optical Sorter on the crushline. Material other than grapes (MOG), including stems, jacks, shot berries, raisins and other foreign material can significantly reduce the quality of the must and the ultimate wine. After destemming (and multiple points of hand sorting), the Optical Sorter uses high resolution cameras, light, many high-speed processors and complex algorithms to detect and reject MOG from the fruit stream, all while running at a rate of up to 4 tons per hour. Our WECO® Optical Sorter is also designed to be easy to understand and operate, employing intuitive controls and a touch-screen interface. This simplicity also allows for easy cleaning and sanitation—critical for wine quality and offering an advantage over other types of Optical Sorters.
Optical Sorting is cutting edge technology in the winemaking industry, and Naumes Crush is pleased to offer this in the standard custom crush winemaking package.