Comparison of Nanofiltration+Pervaporation, Pervaporation and Dialysis Processes for Partial Dealcoholization of White Wines

Abstract

Membrane dialysis is studied as a promising technique for partial dealcoholization of white wines. The performance of three membrane processes applied for the partial dealcoholization of white wines of the Verdejo variety has been studied in the present work. Combination of Nanofiltration with Pervaporation, single step Pervaporation and, finally, Dialysis, have been applied to White wines from same variety and different vintages. The resulting wines have been chemically and sensorially analyzed and results have been compared with initial characteristics of the wines. From the results obtained, we can conclude that the best procedure consists in the application of Dialysis to the wines which resulted in a reasonable alcohol content reduction while maintaining organoleptic properties and consumer acceptability of the original wine. Therefore, membrane dialysis, as a method of partial dealcoholization of white wines, has undoubted advantages over other techniques based on membranes, which must be confirmed in subsequent studies under more industrial conditions.