Make Every Drop Count

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Production Water Use

Water is critical for production - try washing tanks without water.  Yet the cost of water does not reflect its overall importance to the wine making process.  It is estimated that in the U.S. it takes an average of 6 to 12 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of wine.  Water efficiency and reuse have allowed some wineries to bring their water to wine ratio to 1:1 or less.

Water Use Data 

Detailed water use data does not exist for many facilities.  Water use may be measured at a site-wide or sub-site level, making it hard to see the actual processes or equipment responsible for the largest portion of water use.  Additionally, since water may not be measured frequently, it can be difficult to spot spikes in water use or patterns, that can identify efficiency opportunities.

Products and services exist to help automate water use data collection, which can help identify water use patterns.  However, with the cheap cost of water it can be difficult to justify investments in water tracking.  

Types of Water

  • Potable Water

  • Process Wastewater

  • Sanitary Wastewater

  • Stormwater

  • Reclaimed Water

Water Efficiency and Reuse Strategies

Rainwater Capture and Reuse

Rainwater capture can re-purpose the rain and reduce the amount of water wineries use from ground water wells or the municipal water agency.  

For some applications like cooling towers rainwater is preferable to groundwater as you can operate your cooling towers with a higher Cycles of Concentration, increasing the water efficiency because of the reduce mineral content in rainwater compared to ground water.