DESCRIPTION Many beverages are aged in oak barrels or involve the use of oak staves or shavings where by the desirable sensory characteristics of the wine such as bouquet, colour and flavour are largely obtained from the oxidation and extraction reactions that occur during the aging of the wine.

To achieve reproducible results using traditional wine barrels, it is valuable to control the parameters of the oxidation and extraction reactions that take place during the aging period. Unwanted oxidation is detrimental to the quality of the wine and it is known to minimise the rate of such oxidation during the production and aging of quality wines by protecting such wines against excessive exposure to air. On the other hand, air is important to the aging of wine by stabilising colour and many phenolic and flavour compounds in wine. Putting oak in wine without air is found to produce wine with a much less desirable character than barrels, in that oak flavour is not considered to be as well integrated into the wine.

Introducing air into the wine while in contact with oak has come some of the way to producing similar results to barrels but has also led to excessive oxidation. Having the air and the oak extractants taken up by the wine at exactly the same point ensures a better integration of the oak characters while enhancing the oxidative stability of the wine.

Being able to control the amount of air wine takes onboard while extracting the oak flavourants gives better control of the integration and oxidation of these compounds. Different wines from different varieties from different regions require different amounts of oak flavourants and oxidation.

Further, to use an oak barrel for the supply of flavourants is expensive because of the necessary costs of manufacture of barrels.

Attempts have been made previously to avoid the use of barrels for instance in

WO/95/00401 in the name of Intellection Pty Ltd there is disclosed an improved container for the wood maturation of wines and liquors using a plurality of individual lengths of wood being constructed together so as to have a shape with a hole there through and having seal means at one or both ends but which is each open to atmosphere at least at one end. The arrangement is such that air is free to circulate through or inside said tubes.

There is currently no known use of this system in practice and it has some clear difficulties. One of these is that as described it would need a specialized container which means that it is implicitly more expensive. Further the construction of a tube would require specialized manufacturing techniques and it may well be as costly as a barrel.

Further however the tubes especially when these are closed at one end are very vulnerable to promoting infections in a closed environment when this becomes humid as will inevitably be the case. Even if both ends are open, apart from the costs of the specialized container to achieve this there is still a difficulty where air is left in relatively dormant conditions within a hole. If infection does arise, then this can be transmitted to the beverage or at least products of the infection can spoil the beverage and this can be very costly indeed with tainted materials.

An object of this invention is to provide an alternative method and an arrangement whereby wood characteristics can be imparted to a beverage without the costs associated with barrels and also to reduce further difficulties such as those described.

In one form of this invention this can be said to reside in a method of effecting a wood treatment for beverages which includes the steps of immersing within the beverage in a container at least one wooden element with an aperture or apertures in respect of said one or more of the elements with at least a part of at least one element beneath an uppermost level of the beverage, with a tube or tubes interconnecting such apertures adapted to direct a supply of fluid such as air or other appropriate gas or gaseous combination or a liquid through the tube or tubes so as to maintain such fluid within at least some of the apertures to effect an interface through the wood from liquid beverage to air or gas.

In preference the beverage is wine.

In a further preferred instance the beverage is a spirit.

In preference there are at least two such elements and the aperture in each is a bore that extends fully through the element to facilitate passage of a gaseous fluid there through.

In preference, each wooden element is a solid piece of timber which has an aperture or apertures drilled there through.

Such an arrangement reduces costs by reducing the amount of machining that may otherwise be necessary, as in a barrel, and it also reduces the chance of leakage occurring where the timber element remains a solid piece with simply a hole there through.

In preference the bore extends axially parallel to a direction of elongation of the element.

In preference the tubes include a first tube which has an end of the tube located externally of the beverage within the container.

In preference the wooden elements are of oak and arranged to effect an air liquid interface so as to effect an infusion of oak character into the beverage.

In preference there is an arrangement for effecting a wood treatment for beverages which includes within a container at least one wooden element with an aperture or apertures in respect of said one or more of the elements adapted to have at least a part of at least one element beneath an uppermost level of beverage within the container, and a tube or tubes interconnecting such apertures and adapted such that a supply of air, gas or gaseous combination or other appropriate gas can be passed through the tube or tubes so as to maintain flow at least from time to time of air or other gas or combination within at least some of the apertures.

In a further preferred arrangement there is a container and at least one wooden element with an aperture in said element with at least a part of at least one element adapted to be located beneath an uppermost level of the beverage within the container, and a tube connecting with such aperture and such that a supply of air or other appropriate gaseous fluid may be passed through the tube and aperture so as to maintain flow from time to time of air or other gas within the aperture within the

element. in preference there are at least two such elements.

In preference the aperture in each of the elements is axially parallel to a direction of elongation of the element.

In preference one of the tubes has an end located externally of the beverage within the container.

In preference the wooden elements are of oak and arranged to effect an air liquid interface so as to effect an infusion of oak character into the beverage.

In preference there are means to effect a flow of the air or other appropriate gaseous fluid through the tubes.

Further, in preference there are means to monitor characteristics of the air or other gas coming from the tubes and there are means to change air flow in response to such detected characteristics.

Further, the arrangement lends itself to allow for flushing for instance with cleaning liquid, of the tubes and the apertures within the wooden elements from time to time. This may be useful when cleansing of the system is required or leached salts are needed to be removed. Further, there can be air driven with high pressure to blast the passageways or in another case ensure these are dry to minimise bacterial, or other microflora infection of the like or even effect removal of insects.

In preference there are means to effect heating or cooling or dehumidifying or humidifying any fluid being directed through the tubes.

Further, the arrangement and method facilitate control of relative pressures between the liquid and air or other gas so that there can be either a higher pressure or a lower pressure of the air or other gas selected to effect a desired degree of infusion and a relative rate of infusion.

An embodiment of this invention allows the winemaker total flexibility by controlling the amount of oak tubes to be added to the wine and the amount of air passing through the tubes.

In preference there are means to effect recovery of any fluid which has passed through the tubes and there are in preference means to effect condensation of any aromatics or other flavour components as well as alcool.

Advantages of this invention are that this facilitates the use of very large containers of a conventional type for example those of stainless steel currently used to store product such as wine which can now be used to also effect wood treatment with an air/liquid interface.

This offers significant advantages including cost savings, better control over evaporative losses, greater control of the container or tank to be used to hold the beverage and the ease by which topping up of the wine can be performed. To top (periodically fill each barrel due to evaporation loses of the wine) barrels is a very timely operation and introduces the possibility and probably extra oxygen leading to excessive oxidation. To top a vessel in which these oak tubes are placed is a very quick process when a large number of barrels can be the equivalent to one tank containing the tubes.

The ullage (air space/volume in a container) can be kept to a minimum cheaply in this system by frequent topping or purging with inert gas an option not available to barrel storage. Lees contact (the contact of the solids in wine with yeast and grape particulate) can be achieved to the same degree as barrels do. The stirring of the lees is much easier in the suggested system than doing each barrel individually.

The whole system has all the advantages of barrels over other oak storage systems with; 1. extra control of oxidation, 2. a much reduced cost both initial set up i. e. no sheds full of barrels and no forklifting of barrels; and 3. smaller maintenance or running costs of the system i. e. topping and stirring 4. ease by which a variety of different oak from different forests and different coppers can be put together in the one container.

5. wine can be held cold or warm giving added control of aged oxidation and stabilisation, which can be difficult and costly to achieve in wooden barrels.

6. Chemical or other additions periodically required can be made simply and cheaply as compared to barrels.

7. Oak costs are relatively fixed however with the oak tubes four times the

surface area in the case of a one inch by one inch cross section timber piece which is in contact with the wine compared with barrels, much reducing the amount of oak required per volume of wine.

8 Lees stirring is also very much easier than having to stir in each of a large number of individual barrels.

9 Testing becomes much easier and quicker than with individual barrels.

Wine only penetrates a few millimetres into the wood. With barrels once the wine is aged enough or has enough extractants/oxidation, the barrels are emptied and may remain empty for a long time allowing the barrel to spoil as the humid environment grows spoilage microflora.

With the oak tubes air flows freely around surfaces reducing spoilage risk. Once used the tubes can remain in place and can be used again for a wine requiring less oak or some of the tubes can be replaced with new oak tubes or an additional set of new oak tubes can be installed, or some or all the plastic air connectors can be removed and extra oak flavour can be extracted from the internal hole in the tube.

The holes in each wooden tube can be of varying sizes so as can the dimensions of the oak wood depending on the amount of oxygen required, however oak barrels are made with staves of oak which are 1 inch thick and over 1 inch wide.

Pieces 1 inch by 1 inch are therefore obsolete usually and make a good oak tube for this application of this invention. However, in order to match a similar air to liquid depth of wood the size should be 2"by 2". This larger cross section has the advantage of also being more robust and therefore being less likely to split and therefore leak.

Oxidation is also controlled by the amount of air pumped down each tube and the amount of tubes on each air run.

The air once pumped through each tube is expelled to the outside air and can be monitored for humidity, oxygen content and flow rate as well as other components such as aromatics to ensure the tube has not filled with wine if a outlet appears blocked or leaked the tube and its associated oak tubes can be flushed with inert gas and sealed.

While the invention has been described with respect wine it is not intended in its

broader concept that the invention should be limited to such a material. Both port styles and sherry styles of beverage which are fortified wines are usefully treated by this technique. Also spirits including brandy and whisky are other examples of beverage that are usefully considered to be within the concept of this invention.

For a better understanding of this invention it will now be described with the assistance of drawings although it is to be clear that these are illustrative only and in the first instance schematic and do not of themselves limit the scope of the invention.

Accordingly, Figure 1 is a schematic arrangement showing a container in which wooden elements are located within a beverage within the container and coupled in accordance with an embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the wooden elements and some of the interconnecting tubes as shown along the lines 22 in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a pipe cut-away view of the arrangement as shown in Figure 1 and 2 without the beverage, Figure 4 is a side elevation of an arrangement of elements connected in accordance with the second embodiment of the invention; Figure 5 is a further embodiment shown in perspective whereby a larger number of interconnected wooden elements are provided and held to the base of a container which is not shown, Figure 6 is a cross section of the arrangement by which the tube is inserted into an end of a wooden element, and Figure 7 illustrates how the tube system can be arranged to have the circuit in parallel rather than in series.

Referring in detail to the drawings, and in particular to the embodiment shown in schematic arrangement in Figures 1,2 and 3, there are accordingly shown a plurality of wooden elements 1 each of which are solid timber lengths of oak which have a

central bore shown typically at 2 passing fully through the wooden member from one end to the other and arranged so as to be centrally aligned with a central elongate axis of each respective wooden element 1.

The wooden elements 1 are held (by means not specifically shown) so that they will stay beneath an upper surface of the beverage and therefore within the beverage which is shown generally at 3 within a container at 4.

Further, the elements 1 are interconnected by interconnecting end tubes 5 which are arranged to effect an airtight and watertight seal at their respective ends with the respective wooden elements 1.

There are two tubes 7 in the one case and 8 the other that pass from the connected sequence of connected wooden elements 1 so that air that can be driven through tube 7 will then exit outside of the container through tube 8.

The arrangement then is that air can either be pumped or otherwise driven through tube 7 and this then will force air through all of the bores 2 of the respective wooden elements 1 until the air eventually exits through the tube 8.

This shows one arrangement of tubes in which all of the air will pass through all of the tubes.

It is possible however to arrange for an alternate arrangement such as a parallel alignment of the tubes so that the air will be divided equally between all of the wooden elements 1.

Such an arrangement facilitates a high degree of control over the amount of wood treatment that can be given to the particular beverage and it allows for a high degree of monitoring over a period in terms of the amount of air pressure that will be allowed to be effected within the tubes given that air is used or as can be considered useful from time to time alternate gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide or any mixture deemed appropriate.

By now being able to economically control the extent of pressure of the gaseous fluid, such as air within the individual wooden elements, means that one can more accurately control the extent to which an air-beverage interface will be effected by the relative components.

Perhaps more importantly, there can be effected surges so that for a period, the liquid of the beverage can be allowed to more extensively surge and seep within the porous wood and then for a period, a higher air or other gaseous fluid pressure is used to drive the liquid back from an infusing position within the wood.

Using alternate infusion and expulsion, allows for a greater extent of access of the beverage into the wood and the ability to change that small amount of beverage that is coming into contact with the wood tannins so that fresh beverage which has not been saturated with local tannin infusion can be brought again into the wood.

In the second embodiment shown in Figure 4, there is shown now a holding structure which holds the wooden elements 10, which are simply straight lengths of wood with a central bore which has been drilled fully through from end to end and these are connected in air and water tight fashion by tubes such as at 11 and 12 and again this is then connected by a series connection in which there is a supply tube 13 and a withdrawing tube 14.

The elements 10 in this case are kept separate by spaces 15 and the wooden elements 10 are collectively held by a camping frame which comprises a rod 16 the lower end of which is held within a block 17 which is adhered with a appropriate glue 18 to the bottom of a large container at 19.

A more extensive matrix is shown in Figure 5 which again however has these fundamental elements in which a plurality of wooden elements shown typically at 20 are held in rows and in layers which have bores extending axially through each respective element where the elements are each of oak wood and are connected by tubes shown typically at 21 so that all of the wooden elements 20 are interconnected for either parallel or series connections for air supply there through.

A cross-member 23 is held by rod 24 a lower end of which is anchored by rod 25 each of which in turn are adhered to a bottom surface of a container which is not shown in this case.

In Figure 6 there is shown cross section of a joint of an end 30 of a tube 31 which has been forced over a cylindrical fitting 32 with an outer barb 33 to assist in holding the tube 31 in position. This combination is then forced into a matching aperture 34 in an end of the timber element 35. The underlying fitting 32 is made from a more rigid plastic than the food grade silicon tube 31 and there acts to hold this in a tight

nested and water tight position.

The connections between the elements can be either parallel or series and for the sake of completeness, there is now shown an arrangement where the tubes are connecting the apertures in the elements in parallel.

In one arrangement there is provided that an element of the solid timber is such that there is a single growth line which extends for the full length of the timber piece.

This assist in reducing any chance of splitting as far as the timber piece is concerned.

As will now be seen, the concept lends itself a number of embodiments and changes whereby wood treatment can now be effected in a much more effective way both from the point of view of economy, effectiveness in wine making and other beverage manufacture and will generally reduce the relance that currently exists with respect to conventional oak barrels.