Articles on sampling valves and wine sampling

“Is it a sampling valve?” “No, Sire, it’s a revolution!”

A sampling valve that helps prevent occupational risks

Faced with sampling valves that are clogged or too complicated to clean, many professionals climb onto their tanks to draw samples. This happens all year round: it is estimated that 50 samples are needed to make a wine, a figure to be multiplied by the number of tanks.

“Falls from height account for 12.4% of occupational accidents among farmers and 9.4% among agricultural employees. They are also the leading cause of death (23%) among farmers. All agricultural sectors are affected. People fall from tanks, roofs, ladders, trees, machines, gangways, mezzanines…” (Regional Directorate for Enterprise, Competition, Consumer Affairs, Labour and Employment, Occitanie)

For a business owner, the average cost of an occupational accident in the wine sector is €3,000. For a serious accident, the average cost rises to €130,000, and to €430,000 in the event of death.

Reducing risks relies on 9 general principles (article L.4121-2 of the French Labour Code), including:

• Avoiding risks: eliminating the hazard or exposure to the hazard
• Combating risks at source: building prevention in as early as possible, especially when designing workplaces, equipment and working methods.
• Replacing the dangerous with the less dangerous: avoiding hazardous processes or products when the same result can be achieved with a less hazardous method.

D-INNOVATION products support this approach thanks to the technology of the HECLIPSE and HEKINOX sampling valves. Your samples are always reliable and your valves never clog, which avoids dangerous practices and reduces the risk of occupational accidents.

A sampling valve suited to wine tourism

Wine tourism is booming. According to La Revue du Vin de France, “ten million people, including 4.2 million foreigners, come to discover France every year through wine”.

This is a huge opportunity, but it also requires adapting facilities. The winery becomes a showcase while remaining a workplace. HEKINOX and HECLIPSE are designed for this new situation:

• Offer tastings straight from your tanks for greater authenticity. With HECLIPSE and HEKINOX, the wine served is never altered. The sampling ritual with the KIT is simple, quick and hygienic. It shows visitors your good practices and the care you take over the quality of your wine.
• Showcase and protect your wine. With the HEKINOX system, no sample can be drawn without the spout. It works like a key, turning your tanks into safes. Curious visitors cannot operate the valves, and you show how precious the contents of your tanks are!
• Be beyond reproach on hygiene. Traditional sampling valves are hard to clean and tend to attract fruit flies, enough to put off visitors passing through the winery… HEKINOX and HECLIPSE have no retention zone, and wine no longer dries on the outside of your tanks!

Making organic wine and anticipating the market

The organic wine market is growing fast. More and more is being produced and consumed, so much so that within 5 to 10 years, offering an organic wine will no longer be enough to stand out. For example, Saint-Émilion announced the environmental certification of all its vineyards by 2022.

Competition within the organic wine market is set to increase. The estates that stand out will be those that have adapted to the specific methods of organic winemaking. In particular, the many products not permitted in making these wines call for rigorous monitoring.

This naturally involves taking more samples than for a non-organic wine. Samples must be trustworthy, reproducible and easy to draw. This is essential to understand, anticipate and control how your wine evolves.

HEKINOX and HECLIPSE meet this need by allowing completely reliable samples to be drawn from the sampling valve. Samples are always taken from the same point and at a controlled flow rate, so there is no difference in oxidation between two samples (no clogging problems, not even partial ones). Samples can therefore be compared with each other while minimising variations caused by sampling. Sampling time is constant and can be planned with confidence, at a time when controlling winemaking parameters is becoming ever more important.

Assess the hidden costs of your sampling valves!

In business, the purchase price of a tool means little on its own. It is only one parameter of the overall cost of the process in which it is used.

The same goes for the sampling valve. What matters is not how much a valve costs, but how much each sample costs.

You should therefore consider not only the purchase price of the sampling valve but also all the related costs summarised in the table below: