Apparatus for Sorting and Removing Contaminating Matter from Mechanically Harvested Berries Three-Stage Grape Separation Boom for Vintage

This patent covers a three-stage berry separation apparatus that mounts as a boom or side arm on a mechanical grape harvester, combining an apertured conveyor, an array of spaced rotating rollers, and a downstream de-stemming unit to remove matter other than grapes (MOG) before the crop ever leaves the vineyard.

The Problem

Australian vintage runs at speed. Mechanical grape harvesters move along vine rows shaking the canopy laterally, with grapes falling onto conveyors and being moved into a chaser or onboard bin. The shaking also dislodges leaves, petioles, canes, and other plant fragments collectively called matter other than grapes (MOG). MOG contaminates the harvested fruit and, because red wine ferments grape juice in contact with skins and any contaminating matter for an extended period, drives off-flavours and reduces the value of the resulting wine. Wineries grade incoming loads on MOG content and discount or reject high-MOG fruit, so growers and contractors are under direct commercial pressure to deliver clean grapes. The standard responses (slowing the harvester, fitting fans, or relying on a winery-side sorting step) are each unsatisfactory. Slowing the harvester pushes up cost per tonne, fans have limited capacity, integrated harvester sorting systems (Braud Gregoire, Pellenc) require either factory build or expensive retrofit, and most vineyards do not own their harvester (the work is contracted out) so they have no control over which system is fitted.

What This Invention Does

The invention provides a separation apparatus that fits onto a harvester as a boom or side arm, allowing it to be added to or removed from a leased or contracted harvester without rebuilding the machine. Inside an elongate housing, three separation systems work in sequence. A first separation system is a conveyor with apertures sized to pass berries while presenting longer plant matter for further handling, and it is movable along its length to set its upstream and downstream position. A second separation system, located above or adjacent to the first, is an array of rotating rollers spaced to leave openings through which berries fall while non-berry matter is conveyed onward. A third separation system, downstream of the second, is a de-stemming unit positioned above the first separation system. A MOG distribution sub-system carries waste plant matter clear of the apparatus and the collection unit. Berries can drop through any one or more of the three stages and end up in the collection unit. The application is a divisional of AU 2024227443, in a family rooted in PCT/IB2021/057122 (WO 2022/029636).

Key Features

• Boom or side-arm mounting. The apparatus is designed to attach to a harvester as a boom or side arm rather than be integrated during build, so it can be added to leased and contractor-operated harvesters that vineyards do not own.
• Three sequential separation stages. A first apertured conveyor, a second rotating-roller array, and a third de-stemmer downstream of the rollers allow berries to drop out at whichever stage frees them, redundantly separating fruit from contamination.
• Movable conveyor for variable inflow position. The first separation conveyor moves to define an upstream or downstream position relative to itself, allowing the operator to tune where harvested material enters the separation cascade as crop characteristics change through the day.
• Integrated MOG distribution. A distribution sub-system actively moves waste plant matter clear of the apparatus and the collection unit, preventing re-mixing of MOG into the cleaned fruit stream.
• Retrofittable architecture. Because the entire stack is in an elongate housing forming a boom or side arm, the apparatus can be retrofitted to existing harvesters or moved between machines as the harvesting contractor rotates equipment between vineyards.

Who Is Behind It?

The applicant is Aussie Wine Group Holdings Pty Ltd. The named inventor is Malcolm Villis, who appears in earlier filings in the same family. The Australian patent attorney is Dentons in Auckland. The application is a divisional of AU 2024227443, and the family is rooted in PCT/IB2021/057122 (published as WO 2022/029636). The earlier parent application 2021323040 references October 2024 status, consistent with prosecution still active through the divisional chain.

Why It Matters

Australian wine is a roughly six billion dollar export industry built on roughly 6,000 wine grape growers and about 2,000 wineries. Vintage is intensely seasonal and contractor-led: most vineyards rely on harvesting contractors who travel between properties. Add-on equipment that can be bolted onto whichever harvester arrives at the gate, rather than requiring vineyard ownership of a factory-integrated machine, fits the commercial reality of the Australian wine sector. With wineries imposing MOG penalties and increasingly preferring machine-sorted fruit at the gate, an Australian-owned, three-stage retrofittable separation boom is the kind of innovation that can change the economics of mechanical harvesting for premium red wine grapes. Patent protection over a multi-stage boom-mounted separator gives Aussie Wine Group Holdings a defensible position in licensing the technology to harvester operators and equipment suppliers across the South Australian, Victorian, and New South Wales vintage regions.

Related Concepts

This apparatus sits at the intersection of viticulture and winemaking, attacking the matter-other-than-grapes problem at the point of mechanical harvest rather than at the winery gate.

The Australian wine industry, regulated and promoted nationally by Wine Australia, depends heavily on contract harvesters and on cleaner fruit at the gate, making retrofittable separation equipment of this kind commercially significant for premium red wine production.

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AU 2026201859 was published in the Australian Official Journal of Patents on 2 April 2026 and is open for public inspection. Patent applications represent inventions that are sought to be protected and do not necessarily reflect commercially available products.