Oct 25, 2012, 12:36 PM by Ivan Zytynski

We have recently installed a humidifying system using our XA range of air atomising nozzles. It is installed in a large wine "cellar" which is actually a converted air craft hanger that acts as a bonded warehouse for fine wines. 

The purpose of the spraying system is to eliminate wastage from the wine. A certain amount of wine will actually evaporate through the cork each year, its only a very small fraction and for most wines this is not a problem. But with a fine wine worth many thousands of pounds per bottle, kept over years or even decades this loss can be significant. Good wine buyers and sommelier will be able to spot a bottle that has lost wine in this way prior to opening and this can mean the value of the bottle is reduced by several hundred pounds. Money is evaporating away!

By keeping the environment slightly humid this process of evaporation is reduced, potentially saving huge amounts of lost revenue. We can see similar potential applications in whisky manufacturing as well. Whisky will loose a percentage of volume each year it matures in the barrel this is about 2% per year (this is known as the angels share). Over time this can be significant its about 18.3% for a standard 10 year maturation, about 33% over 20 years when you make the good stuff I can only treat myself to on special occasions and over half is lost on a 30 year malt, which is a crime against humanity in my opinion given that I can't afford to buy whisky that nice by the bottle. 

As you can probably tell wasted whisky is a subject dear to my heart. The thought of those greedy angles guzzling half a barrel of 30 year old malt makes me quite sad. But who knows maybe the humble spray nozzle can help prevent the grievous crime.