Key Technology introduces wine grape sorter for MOG removal

The compact wine grape sorter from Key Technology combines a patent-pending mechanical MOG (material other than grape) removal shaker and optical sorting with an integral juice recovery system. As the lowest cost optical sorting system on the market, VitiSort? helps wineries improve their product quality while redirecting labour to other tasks.

Ideal for wineries producing 5,000 to 50,000 cases per year, VitiSort sorts up to 5 tonnes (4.5 metric tonnes) of red grapes per hour. The system removes any unwanted objects such as insects, skins, raisins, shot berries, stem jacks, petioles, leaves, and other MOG from the product flow, which enables the winery to better control the quality of must going to their fermentation tanks.

The company conducted full-season field trials with wineries in various growing regions in North America, Europe, and Australia to verify the effectiveness of VitiSort. Pepper Bridge Winery and Chateau Ste. Michelle are amongst the wineries that have used the sorter for more than one vintage.

“With its MOG shaker and optical sorter combined, VitiSort is very effective at improving the quality of our must. If it’s not removed, MOG will release a bitterness – a harsh tannin – to the wine. Removing the non-grape attributes like this will improve the quality of our wine,” said Jean-Fran?ois Pellet, Winemaker at Pepper Bridge Winery. “Thanks to this system, we’re able to receive, sort, and crush 3 ? tonnes of grapes per hour with only four workers. One is overseeing the operation, one is feeding product to the system, and two are sorting out leaves before the destemmer. It’s hard to say how many people we would need without VitiSort – maybe 15 or 20, I’m not sure – but it’s virtually impossible to achieve this high level of MOG removal at the volume we’re doing with manual labour.”

Ray McKee, the Red Winemaker for Chateau Ste. Michelle added, “With Key’s VitiSort, we’re removing 99.9% of the MOG whilst sorting 4 to 5 tonnes of grapes per hour with two and a half workers. The effectiveness of the technology allows us to use machine-picked grapes and put only berries and pure juice into fermentation. It gives us exceptional quality control to end up with a very rich and dense wine that doesn’t have the tannin from green stems and leaves.”

The stainless steel is also mobile, designed to easily roll into position under the destemmer so fruit automatically flows from one machine to the other. The two-stage VitiSort features a mechanical MOG removal system followed by an optical sorter.

First, a vibratory conveyor gently shakes the grapes to separate MOG, which falls through uniquely designed slots in the shaker’s screen, along with juices. MOG is accumulated on a sloped surface for easy disposal, while the juices are recovered for reintroduction to the must. Singulated grapes freefall from the end of the vibratory conveyor into the sorter, presenting a “sheet” of product that allows a camera to inspect each grape. A specially designed drip tray keeps juice out of the camera line-of-sight. The sorter quickly analyses the images, comparing each object to previously defined accept/reject standards. When unwanted objects are identified, the sorter activates the ejeAdidas Yeezy shoes