Winemaking is a highly refined process that requires skill, precision, and constant attention to detail. Even minor exposure to oxygen or contaminants during production can compromise a wine’s flavour, aroma, colour, and overall quality, putting an entire batch at risk. To preserve wine quality at every stage of production, wineries have long relied on nitrogen gas as part of their production process.
With an onsite nitrogen generator, wineries can produce a continuous supply of beverage-grade nitrogen directly from compressed air, reducing dependence on gas cylinders and bulk liquid nitrogen deliveries. Advanced Gas Technologies’ nitrogen generation systems can be tailored to meet the specific purity and flow requirements of winery operations, providing a reliable and cost-effective solution for protecting wine quality throughout production.
What Is the Role of Nitrogen Gas in Wineries?
Wineries use nitrogen gas as an inert barrier against oxygen contamination. Nitrogen sparging removes dissolved oxygen from the wine by bubbling nitrogen through the liquid, helping restore and preserve its natural characteristics without affecting taste or aroma. Nitrogen blanketing is also used to protect tanks and storage vessels during racking and filtration by displacing oxygen in empty space above the wine. Before bottling, nitrogen is commonly used to purge bottles and eliminate headspace oxygen prior to corking or capping.
Because nitrogen is colourless, odourless, and tasteless, it protects the wine without impacting the sensory qualities of the finished product. Compared to other inert gases such as argon or carbon dioxide, nitrogen is also one of the most cost-effective and widely used solutions for deoxidizing and preserving wine in commercial winery operations.
Nitrogen Blanketing and Bottle Purging in Wine Production
In addition to sparging the wine itself, the winemaking and bottling equipment also needs to be deoxidized. Bottles undergo a stringent and thorough flushing out or blanketing process before and after the wine is bottled. Nitrogen gas is used to flush out any oxygen and chemical contaminants from the bottles that could spoil the wine. This process eliminates oxygen from the head space of the wine bottle prior to corking or capping, thus helping to preserve wine quality for years or even decades.
Blanketing or flushing isn’t just limited to wine bottles, though. All of the equipment and storage units that the wine eventually comes into contact with must also undergo this process. Otherwise, the risk of oxidization and contaminant contact is too high. Therefore, blanketing can be an ongoing process throughout the winemaking process that must be carried out with the utmost precision to adequately preserve the wine.
Nitrogen Sparging Requirements for Red and White Wines
Red Wine
Dry, aged red wines require trace amounts of carbon dioxide during the fermentation process to retain their strong, rich flavour profile and dark tone and therefore need to be sparged with a mix of neutral gases. Lighter, fruitier red wines, on the other hand, can be sufficiently sparged using only nitrogen gas.
White Wine
White wine can also be sparged using only nitrogen gas. But to achieve the best results in terms of colour, flavour profile, aroma, and freshness, it’s better to use a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas simultaneously.
Benefits of Onsite Nitrogen Gas Generators for Wineries and Vintners
Installing an onsite nitrogen generator gives a winery direct control over its nitrogen supply in addition to these other benefits:
- Onsite nitrogen generation eliminates cylinder rental fees, bulk delivery charges, and the evaporative losses inherent in liquid nitrogen storage.
- Nitrogen cylinders and liquid dewars introduce handling risks on the cellar floor. An onsite generator removes those risks by producing gas at low pressure, on demand, from compressed air.
- Delivery dependency is a production risk. A missed or delayed nitrogen delivery during bottling season can halt the bottling line entirely. An onsite generator produces nitrogen 24 hours a day, seven days a week, eliminating that exposure.
- Onsite generation also reduces the carbon footprint associated with regular delivery vehicle trips to the winery.
PSA Nitrogen Generators for Wineries
Advanced Gas Technologies specializes in providing state-of-the-art PSA nitrogen gas generator technology for a variety of business sectors including the wine industry.
Our PSA nitrogen generators use carbon molecular sieve beds to separate nitrogen from oxygen, achieving purities from 99% to 99.999%; the range required for strict dissolved oxygen control during bottling, where most winemakers target dissolved oxygen below 0.5 ppm.
Nitrogen Gas Generators for the Wine Beverage Industry
For more than 30 years, Advanced Gas Technologies has worked with wineries to replace cylinder and bulk liquid nitrogen supply with purpose-built onsite generation systems that match the specific purity, flow rate, and reliability requirements of their operations. Every system is custom engineered to the site. We size the nitrogen output to match peak winery demand, including simultaneous bottling line operation and tank blanketing, and specify the appropriate compressed air treatment upstream to protect generator performance over the system’s service life. Contact us today to learn more.