Eric Dahlberg
President & Founder
Winesecrets

Eric T. Dahlberg grew up in Calgary, Canada, and graduated from Williams College in 1985 with a degree in Chemistry. He joined the US Army at Presidio of San Francisco, where he assisted in medical research projects over the course of three years. He took an interest in the local attractions, including the region's wines.

In 1989, military service complete, he began a career in the environmental remediation industry. He spent 12 years, primarily engaged in the efforts to recycle Northern California's military bases.

In 1994, Dahlberg moved to Napa and helped to start a small winery. In 2000, his winery employed Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology to reduce the concentration of alcohol in their wines. Fascinated, he went to work for the company which had provided that service. In 2002, Dahlberg founded Winesecrets to bring RO technology to Canada's community of wine producers.

In 2003, Winesecrets was contracted by the California Energy Commission to demonstrate Electrodialysis filtration technology to wine producers. Winesecret’s offerings now include RO, ultra-filtration, microfiltration, osmotic transport, distillation, centrifugal clarification and electrodialysis of wine. Mr. Dahlberg has participated in development of wine-related technologies involving high powered sound and robotics. Winesecrets operates a beverage production facility and distillery in Sonoma County.

In 2014, Winesecrets entered a Channel Partner Agreement with GE Water and Power. This has broadened the reach of his company to participate in a variety of process water, water treatment, and water recycling initiatives.

Zero Water Use Wine Production Facility - Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration Technologies to Recover Specialty Formulated Wash Water from a Unique CIP System

California’s wine producers need to operate production facilities with dwindling water supplies. Winery sanitation consumes up to 9 gallons of water per wine gallon produced. Traditional water systems take water from a subsurface well or municipal system for single use followed by disposal.

Researchers at University of California at Davis supported by industry partners have devised a sanitation system that captures rain water and reuses it an estimated 10 times. This allows wine processing without the introduction of water from existing resources.

This is accomplished by capturing rain water, further purifying it with Reverse Osmosis, adding small amounts of very specific inorganic salts for cleaning, and recovering the wash solution using Nanofiltration.

Results are pending, as the system is being installed in phases during the course of the year.

If successful, this methodology could be implemented by a variety of food and beverage operations, resulting in considerable conservation of existing water resources.

Co-Author:
Jill Brigham
Executive Director, Sustainable Wine & Food Processing Center
Department of Viticulture and Enology, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis