8920 58th Pl, Ste 100, Kenosha, WI, United States of America, 53144

https://mcfinntech.com/

12629097267

Feeds

Dedicated Automation: Crafting Quality Wine at Niner Wine Estates

The fog along the California coast is alive — it flows from the Pacific Ocean up through passes in the protective coastal ranges and into the valleys like a tide. It rises into the hills and breathes before slowly receding to the valley floors and retreating through the mountains, across the sands and into the ocean waters. Toward the north, these fogs nurture the redwoods, and all along the coast, they provide relief from hot daytime temperatures for many wine country vineyards.

The Niner Estate vineyards are near Paso Robles, about 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean. They are protected from the cold maritime winds by the Santa Lucia mountain range that parallels the coastline. One of the valleys the fog creeps through is the nearby Templeton Gap. For over a decade, Niner Wine Estates’ winemaker Patrick Muran has been crafting the Fog Catcher Bordeaux blend that he says is “named after the cool banks of fog we often see drifting over our vineyards on early mornings in the fall.”

Muran grew up not far away, surfing the cold Pacific waves around Arroyo Grande and Pismo Beach, before going on to study microbiology at UC Santa Barbara. He was on a path to a medical career until he took a summer lab analysis job at a winery. “That was my first foray into wine, and I never looked back,” he says. “My whole family is in the medical field, but they told me to ‘Go make wine. You'll have a lot more fun doing that than what we're doing.’ So, I stuck with it. That was in 2000, which makes this my 25th harvest. It's been a great journey.”

The last fifteen of those years have been at Niner Wine Estates. Founder Dick Niner was one of eight children in a West Virginian subsistence farming family. Although he went on to study at Princeton and Harvard and spent his career in venture capital, his roots in the land led him to recognize that farming and winemaking were an integrated pair. From the beginning, Niner worked to treat the land with respect. Today, the Estate’s Paso Robles and Edna Valley AVA vineyards are SIP-certified, which means ‘Sustainability in Practice’ both in the vineyard and at the winery.

With the impact of climate change looming over agriculture, the Niner team’s attention is on healthy vines and resilience. In farming, they compost and use cover crops and organic fertilizer to improve the soil biology and nutrient cycling. In the winery, circularity is a priority, with all water and waste recycled and reused in the vineyard.

Andy Niner, who now leads Niner Wine Estates, shares his perspective. “Sustainability is integrally tied to how good your wine is and how long you can make great wine. I would like to retire knowing the land is healthier than it was when we started, and we didn’t negatively impact the local area — we actually built it up and left it a better place.”

Muran joined Niner early in its development because of its long-term vision of quality. “They wanted to achieve the highest potential for quality out of a new region instead of investing in a more fully realized region like Napa,” he explains. “We run everything we do through the filters, ‘Does this improve the quality? What is the added value?’”

Muran had been moving the winery toward automation and decided that purchasing 36 Bowpeller automated low shear pumps by McFinn Technologies and dedicating each pump to a single fermentation tank offered both quality and value. His highly skilled team would no longer have to move pumps from tank to tank, thus reducing the risk of error, which can be high during harvest, and microbial cross-contamination. The smaller Bowpeller pumps meet that parameter, are more affordable and save energy, effort, water and time lost to routine cleaning and sanitizing.

“We're using the Bowpeller pumps in an automated system that hooks up a fermenting vessel and sets it onto a schedule we change daily,” he explains. “This lets us match the extraction rate to the tank sizes. The sole function of the Bowpeller pumps is to do automated pump overs for each of our 36 fermenting vessels.”

Muran emphasizes that automated pump-overs work well for Bordeaux varieties because targeting the exact extraction timing can be critical. With a tight window to extract color from these grapes and a limitless opportunity to extract tannins, the Bowpeller allows winemakers to easily adjust the timing and sequences to maximize color extraction while capping tannin extraction.

“Bowpeller pumps fit our scale, are affordable and provide the automation we need to hit that window,” Muran stresses. “We can measure our success with an analytical tool that lets us see the color and tannin extraction curves – it doesn’t depend on guesswork.”

Learn more about how the Bowpeller by McFinn Technologies can help your winery at: https://mcfinntech.com/



McFinn Technologies pumps Bowpeller pumps Bowpeller Niner Wine Estates

Low Shear Bowpeller Centrifugal Pump Promotes Out-Gassing Without Emulsification

Check out our patented Bowpeller centrifugal pump for Pump-overs. The low shear design promotes out-gassing without emulsification. Our pumps are standard on a potable cart, with variable speed control and come with a wireless remote control. Non portable units are also available.

Our Mcfinn pumps are a staple in the industry. The standard pumps are also portable, self priming, have a flexible impeller, variable speed control, and include a wireless remote control.  We have many different variations to suite your needs.

Mcfinn Technologies manufactures innovative pumps for the wine, distilling, and brewing industries. Visit us at WIN Expo booth 119 on December 5 at the Sonoma County Fairground. Get a free trade show floor pass by registering with the promo code: MCF119


Pump Pump-Over

The Art of Gentle Winemaking: The Frey Family’s Legacy of Organic Excellence

Image of a flock of sheep grazing amongst dormant grape vines

At the edge of the coastal redwoods lies a ranch where two young doctors from upstate New York, Marguerite (known as Beba) and Paul Frey, settled on 95 acres to raise their family. Their home is nestled between the Mendocino and Coastal mountain ranges in a narrow valley that opens into Mendocino County’s Redwood Valley. The headwaters of the Russian River lie just 5 miles north, past a Buddhist monastery, and upward into the mountains. The Frey family grew to twelve children amid the valley’s natural beauty and abundant native plants and wildlife while its vineyards and gardens thrived in the fertile soil. 

“My mom and dad bought the ranch in 1962, the year I was born,” says Frey Winery winemaker Paul Frey (the younger). “Then they got all of us kids out there to plant the vineyards in 1967. We started making wine in 1978 and became an official bonded winery in 1980. Our wineries were organic from the beginning ― before the term organic was defined in 2000 ― so 2024 is our 44th year making organic wine.” 

The winery has grown to 150,000 cases annually, and as the family opened its arms to spouses and grandchildren, the ranch stretched to 1000 acres. The Freys have also tended to the environment. Their vineyards are surrounded by a biodiversity reserve, with transitional hedgerows of native redwoods, madrones and manzanita, as well as roses, blackberries and olive trees. The reserve includes 100 acres of redwood forest saved from logging and an almost equal acreage of adjacent woodlands, all placed in trust for future generations. 

Frey Vineyards was the country’s first organic and biodynamic winery, earning Demeter Biodynamic® certification in 1996 and USDA Organic certification in 2003. Frey has gained international recognition for his winemaking without adding sulfites, which is required to attain the USDA organic seal. He started researching additive-free winemaking techniques in the 1980s, and in the 1990s, the winery added zero-oxygen bottling equipment, a must-have for no sulfites-added winemaking.

man inspecting his vineyard with a small white dog looking on

“For most of history, wine was made from organic grapes,” says Frey. “We've studied ancient winemaking, which goes back at least 8,000 or even 10,000 years. To make wine in the most traditional style, you have to handle it as gently as possible. Some people have made gravity-flow wineries, which sit on top of hills and are the most extreme non-intervention possible.”

While looking for a pump that transfers wine quickly but gently, he talked with John McGinn at a wine show. McGinn is one of the owners of McFinn Technologies, which designed the Bowpeller pump.

“John mentioned the Tesla pump in our conversation,” recalls Frey. “Tesla was ahead of his time, and many of his patents are still relevant. He basically defined the cell phone 100 years ago. He said, ‘You'll be able to put it in your pocket and send information and pictures from one place to the other.’ [See Tesla’s quotation here.] He built the first generators at Niagara Falls to send AC power to Buffalo, NY. Tesla's low voltage AC power beat Edison in the electric wars with Edison, who wanted to use DC power everywhere.”

One of Tesla’s lesser-known inventions was the Tesla turbine pump. Frey’s studies have convinced him that this bladeless centripetal flow turbine pump design is the best for traditional winemaking, and the Bowpeller uses the same principle.

Image of a Bowpeller pump by McFinn Technologies

McGinn further explains the Bowpeller’s patented design. “A standard centrifugal pump has blades that slap the liquid and make it change direction by 90 degrees. The Bowpeller doesn’t beat it into 90-degree submission but does so gradually, which means a couple of things for winemakers who want to do pump-overs. First, there are no pinch points inside the pump to worry about, so skins and seeds will remain intact. Second, it will be very gentle on the product and won’t break up air or entrained gas bubbles.”

He adds that the designers of the Bowpeller pump considered the g-force of the acceleration rate inside the impeller and whether or not it would rupture cell membranes. The resulting design makes it gentle to a cellular level. In addition, the two chambers inside the casing protect the wine. The first chamber acts like an inducer to help pull solids into the pump. From there, the solids and liquid move into the second chamber, where they’re protected on both sides and gently accelerated until the product is pumped out.

Frey chose the Bowpeller because it fits his traditional winemaking process of gently and minimally processing the wine. He points out that consumers like the idea of minimally processed foods and beverages. Whether you’re a winemaker who adheres to a traditional organic process or are looking for a process gentler for your wine than pump-overs, reach out to McFinn Technologies for more information



McFinn Technologies Logo

Spotlight McFinn Technologies Bowpeller Pumps Frey Vineyards

Perfecting Pinot: Goldeneye Elevates Winemaking in Anderson Valley

Early morning fog from the Pacific Ocean flows into the Anderson Valley through the coastal redwoods and rises into the hills before dissipating as day warms the air. These maritime influences keep daytime temperatures low, making it the coolest wine-growing region in California and the perfect environment for the Pinot Noir grapes for which it has gained fame.

“Over the past decade, Anderson Valley has entered the world stage,” says Kristen McMahan, Winemaker at Goldeneye. “As one of the largest producers in the Valley, we take that to heart. We want people to explore Anderson Valley, and we want to be a good representative and steward of the place where we grow grapes and make wine. We're really proud of it, and so we aim to deliver the best possible examples of the Valley’s wines.”

When it was designated an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in 1982, two-thirds of the Anderson Valley’s 582 vineyard acres were planted to Chardonnay and Alsace Varietals like Riesling and Gewürztraminer. But Pinot Noir plantings had been expanding in California, and they soon found their way to this rural haven, where local winemakers began exploring the complexity this fruit could produce.

Photo Credit: Wildly Simple Productions 

“Pinot Noir hits a sweet spot here with the climate and an amount of rainfall, sun, fog and wind that makes it perfectly happy,” says Goldeneye’s assistant winemaker, Lyle Dowsett. “We get good color, polished tannins and complexity; we can make a very balanced wine.”

Dan and Margaret Duckhorn shrewdly chose Anderson Valley for their foray into Pinot Noir, founding Goldeneye in 1996, years before the Pinot Noir boom. This timing is reminiscent of their championing of Merlot wine in the late 1970s, which resulted in elevating the variety from a blending juice to a Napa star and turned Duckhorn Vineyards into one of the most famous Merlot producers in the world. Then, as now, The Duckhorn Portfolio led with single-vineyard wines.

McMahan adds, “I feel very fortunate that we have estate vineyards encompassing the length and width of the Valley, giving us so many different fruit profiles, spices and tannins. They're truly unique and beautiful vineyards to work with.”

Photo Credit: Wildly Simple Productions 

Making Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Wines

When McMahan stepped into the Goldeneye winemaker position in 2021, she began evolving the wines in a way that stayed true to their roots and showcased the Anderson Valley terroir. That means, first and foremost, making sure that each of the wines has a distinctive sense of place. It also means staying up to date on products that can help them achieve these goals. She and Dowsett look at each decision — from technology to barrel type, sanitation practices to sustainable packaging — in the context of its impact on the quality and character of the final product. Because they’re in a very rural location, staffing is always an issue — Goldeneye has two winemakers and three cellar staff — so technologies that streamline processes and utilize staff more efficiently are also essential.

“One example is pumpovers,” McMahan explains. “We traditionally used an air pump, which usually required two people — one person over the top and one on the bottom. Lyle found a pump that let us free up an intern to do other work.”

Dowsett’s find was the patented Bowpeller centrifugal pump designed by McFinn Technologies, which they installed last year. Its patented low-shear centrifugal design makes it much gentler on the wine than other pumps, as well as being easy to operate and a good value for the cost. Other centrifugal pumps are shaped like a propeller inside a chamber, so it acts more like a blender, whereas this was developed for dairy, where things like cottage cheese have to be handled delicately, so the whole chamber moves.

“Before the Bowpeller, we had to remove the solids with a sump and screen ahead of the pump, which used a lot of labor and added oxygen even when it wasn’t needed,” explains Dowsett. “Now, with Bowpeller, we can connect it directly to the tank and it’s so gentle that grapes and skins remain intact. We can also dial in how much oxygen it’s getting rather than having to splash it into a sump.”

The Goldeneye winemakers have also improved safeguards to retain the flavors and delicate aromas after fermentation by diligently blanketing headspaces in tanks and using inert gas from a nitrogen generator for racking.

Dowsett continues, “In Pinot, florals and fruit can fade quickly in you’re not careful. We age about 16 months, so we want to maintain each vineyard’s sense of place and have the wine be very fresh — to jump out of the glass.”

As part of both The Duckhorn Portfolio and the Anderson Valley, these two Goldeneye winemakers are cognizant of the legacies their wines represent. It’s been almost 50 years since the Duckhorns founded their first winery, and many of the Valley’s wineries have been there for decades. This sense of continuity in heritage and connection to place informs their decisions and honors the communities they cherish. Yet, it clearly doesn’t stop them from innovating.

Find Out More About Bowpeller Pumps

McFinn Technologies Logo

Spotlight McFinn Technologies Bowpeller Pumps Goldeneye Pump

The Ideal Pump for Winery Pump-Over

Bowpeller® pumps: Built for today, designed for tomorrow. Our patented line of low shear, gentle, centrifugal pumps; Bowpeller®, are in applications ranging from micro algae production in geothermal production facilities in Iceland, to artisan cheese makers, to reducing dissolved oxygen levels in your local micro brewery and of course; wineries. Bowpeller pumps provide the optimum design for gentle product handling and high efficiency.

How to Set the Seal on a Bowpeller Pump

For pump-overs, US-FIP are the only pump manufacturer that offers a unique, patented, low shear centrifugal pump; Bowpeller. It is ideal for gentle product handling and de-gassing.

U.S. Manufacturing Company Creates Innovative Design for Flexible Impeller and Low Shear Centrifugal Pumps

McFinn Technologies, located in the heart of Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been setting the standard for industry-grade flexible impeller and centrifugal pumps designed specifically for the wine industry since 2011.

Its highly-rated US-FIP series of flexible impeller pumps are known for superior must and/or juice handling with self-priming, high suction action that is complemented by robust wireless controls to facilitate ease of operation.

Also known as positive displacement pumps; flexible impeller pumps work by utilizing a food grade impeller rotating inside a cam shaped casing.  The shape of the casing puts compression on the rotating impeller veins and displaces liquid out of the pump enabling it to move up or downstream.

Flexible Impeller Pumps

The impeller pumps come equipped with a wireless remote that contains forward/reverse, stop/start and variable speed controls. Also, the vertical orientation of the pump head allows the hoses to remain on a horizontal plane, preventing kinking and undue stress on the fittings.  According to McFinn Technologies co-founding partner John McGinn, the moderate price tag on the US-FIP series is surpassed only by its clear, easy-to-grasp design, which was created with the end-user in mind.

“The questions we ask ourselves is how do you make this product so the customer who gets it can turn it on and it works?” McGinn notes. “If it’s not simple, you’ve not done your job as an engineer or designer.”

Similarly, the company’s patented Bowpeller centrifugal pump has impressed industry professionals with its simplicity of operation and superior design efficiency.

Unlike the impeller pumps, centrifugal pumps work by accelerating the liquid that comes into it via a rotating impeller, which converts velocity into pressure and directs the fluid to the outlet of the system.

Bowpeller 3-up

On traditional centrifugal pumps, that pressure can be tough on both the product going through the machine as well as on the unit itself.

The beauty of the McFinn Technologies Bowpeller is its “low shear” centrifugal design.

Rather than simply lowering the impeller velocity (which also decreases the efficiency of operations), the Bowpeller was developed with a unique pathway and shape for the liquid. This patented design lowers the rate of acceleration, ultimately lowering the “g-force” to the product. The result is an optimum flat performance curve, which is ideal for operating at variable speeds at the highest level of efficiency across the entire range of the pump’s capability.

“The advantages of less g-force exerted on molecules means that the action of the pump is not going to destroy that fruit membrane or that fat globule,” explains McGinn. “With pumpovers, it’s especially important because of the air or gasses already present. The Bowpeller will not emulsify those gasses into the product, which could ultimately affect quality.”

All US-FIP pumps are constructed and meet FDA and 3A requirements for food and dairy processing. 

For more information on the US-FIP series or the Bowpeller low shear centrifugal pump, go to the McFinn Technologies website at www.americanwinepump.com.

US-FIP 15130-VSMP, Flexible Impeller Pump

1.5" Tri-clamp, 1 HP, 25gpm, 20 psi. No remote. Controlled by forward and reverse switch.  On 4 wheels and comes with a handle to move around easily.

US-FIP 15130-VSMP

Price: $1,950 + Shipping

Stop Beating Your Product with an Old Design Centrifugal Pump

Bowpeller is our patented low shear centrifugal pump that does not emulsify air into your product and it is gentle to membrane cells.

Bowpeller is available in 2 cart models:

Bowpeller model B15154: 1.5"x 1.5" triclamp, 4.25” Impeller, external ceramic carbon seal, 304SS cart, washdown 3hp, 3450rpm  motor, Lenze VFD with wireless remote control, 230V 1ph or 3ph.  Max flow 110 gpm, TDH 75'

Price: $3,500.00 plus shipping

Bowpeller model B3258  3"x 2.5" triclamp, 8” Impeller, external ceramic carbon seal, 304SS cart, washdown 5hp, 1750 rpm motor, Lenze VFD with wireless remote control, 230V 1ph or 3ph. Max flow  350gpm, TDH 65'

Price: $7,500.00 plus shipping

Newly Patented Bowpeller Centrifugal Pump Design

Bowpeller low shear centrifugal pumps:

We received our second US and first European patent for our low shear Bowpeller centrifugal pump design in 2018. Our latest US patent is #10094384.  

Ideal for pump overs! 

Bowpeller  B15154 flows to 130 gpm

Bowpeller B3258 flows to 450 gpm

Get More Information

imageimage

image

image

About

US-FIP®: "Finally, American made flexible impeller pumps for the wine industry!" 

 

The US-FIP® line of flexible impeller pumps are manufactured completely in the United States! We offer 3 models in the configuration pictured above: model 30080 (3"x3"), model 22060 (2.5'x2.5") and model 20035 (2"x2").  Models 30080 (3") and 22060 (2.5") are ideal must pumps and they have the torque and power to meet your requirements for must or pump over applications. You will be happy to know that quality and performance are still American attributes and it will be easy to see these features in our products.  We are the only American made flexible impeller pump to serve the wine and juice market in nearly 30 years---Our innovative and high quality US-FIP® pumps are built to last and we are here to stay! 

                  

    US-FIP 30080                                US-FIP 22060                        US-FIP 20035

 

Pump Casing:

  • The casing utilizes sanitary clamps to lock the pump casing on the pump frame and to lock on the front cover.  The clamps allow easy rotation of the entire casing to easily position inlet/outlet nozzles where you need them---Clamp design provides 360 degree compression sealing on O rings. 
  • US-FIP® mounts the pump vertically on its shaft axis to allow rotation of inlet and outlet and to make disassembly/assembly easy!  No other manufacturer utilizes sanitary clamps for casing retention --- so even if the competition mounted their pumps vertically, they would have none of the advantages of US-FIP® ! 
  • Standard casing fittings are Tri-Clamp (bevel seat fittings are pictured, however, Tri-Clamp are standard) 
  • 3" and 2.5" pumps---large enough for any wineries tough must applications---2" pumps ideal for juice and wine transfer 
  • Simple, clean and innovative---US-FIP®

Contact

Contact List

Title Name Email Phone Extension
Owner/Partner John McGinn jj-mcginn@hotmail.com 262-909-7267
Owner/Partner LeRoy Finnigan lfmcfin@gmail.com

Location List

Locations Address State Country Zip Code
McFinn Technologies 8920 58th Pl, Ste 100, Kenosha WI United States of America 53144

List of Locations