COMPANY PROFILE

Rack-Master’s revolutionary design helps winemakers focus more on making wine, rather than being burdened with rack and barrel maintenance issues. A unique all plastic construction provides complete corrosion resistance and a gentle surface texture that protects expensive oak barrels from unnecessary handling damage. Rack-Master is also built to last with unparalleled impact strength, which resists the denting and paint chipping associated with steel racks. This proven durability is backed by the industry’s best warranty protection, offering twice the coverage of the nearest competitor.

The Rack-Master™ design is also very versatile in that every dimension was carefully crafted to accommodate the wine industry’s most popular barrel handling and washing equipment, and is stacking compatible with existing steel barrel rack systems, making the switch to Rack-Master™ a seamless change for existing winery operations. Finally, if Rack-Master™ ever has to be replaced at the end of its useful life, Bonar Plastics has a return program, where used racks are welcomed back to be reprocessed into new racks, providing the wine industry with a documented cradle to grave solution. 

http://bonarwineproducts.com/Products/Rack-Master 

Barrels stacked on plastic racks in Napa cellar close to the epicenter of the August 2014 quake.

Bob Williamson, owner and founder of Ideology Cellars, knew he had found something special when he first discovered a plastic barrel rack to use in lieu of his old steel racks. Besides the obvious benefit of corrosion resistance, and the added reduction in related maintenance costs compared to the painted carbon steel racks, he was also attracted to the environmental sensibilities of the product, which is 100% recyclable.

The unexpected benefit of the plastic racks was their pliable material construction. “The plastic racks are somewhat flexible and grab the barrels with more surface area,” said Williamson, “ and the plastic material is gentler on the barrels and doesn’t scratch the cellar floors, like the steel racks.”

However, the ultimate benefit of the plastic rack construction was not realized until August 24, 2014, when the Napa Valley experienced their strongest earthquake in 25 years. In the aftermath of the quake, Williamson visited the cellar storing his barrels to survey the damage, and couldn’t believe his eyes. Standing by itself in a sea of collapsed steel barrel rack stacks was a single stack of plastic barrel racks. “It was unbelievable. I don’t think a professional photographer could have photo shopped the cellar setting any better.”

Bonar Plastics, a manufacturer of plastic barrel racks, was skeptical of Williamson’s photo, but had received similar feedback from other customers, and felt the performance reports made sense. “We had always thought that the plastic barrel racks would perform better than steel in a seismic event, based on our vibration and drop testing of other products, but we had never conducted any earthquake tests.” said Cullen Jones, Director of Sales and Marketing at Bonar Plastics.

While the real world earthquake experience and positive feedback from customers was exciting, Bonar management needed to know if these results were a fluke, or did they possibly have an unplanned advantage in earthquake zones. The Napa earthquake was a popular topic at the most recent Unified Wine and Grape Symposium last January, and Bonar personnel decided to pursue a quantitative controlled test environment to confirm the real world results. “During the Unified Symposium, we learned from the folks over at Constellation Brands, who had similar issues with their 2 barrel steel barrel racks, that the University of California, Berkeley, has a testing facility to simulate historical seismic activity,” said Jones.

Barrels stacked 6 high on plastic racks after 125% of Napa quake energy*

Barrels stacked on steel racks would only pass 75% Napa quake energy.*

*Photos: UC Berkley PEER Test Center

Shortly thereafter, Bonar expedited seismic testing at UC Berkeley’s Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) in early March, and confirmed that the real world results were indeed no fluke. In summary, Bonar’s 2 barrel plastic rack passed 125% of the Napa quake’s energy at the epicenter with barrels stacked 6 high. “We actually would have passed at a 150% or higher on the Loma Prieta earthquake test, but we neglected to rotate the bottom rack, which had sustained some damage after being exposed to five other tests prior,” said Jones. The Loma Prieta Earthquake was in 1989, and responsible for 63 deaths, and 3,757 injuries.

In comparison, the steel 2 barrel racks could only pass the Napa quake test at 75% of the seismic energy. “The results were pretty conclusive.” Jones added, “The plastic material construction enables the rack and everything on it to absorb more energy, which places less stress on the expensive wine barrels, and a benefit even during routine barrel handling and stacking operations.”

Plastic barrel racks have been on the market for over 5 years, but have yet to gain any significant market share in the wine industry. “The wine industry is a little slower than most in making changes.” Jones continued. “The value proposition of a plastic rack has always been compelling from a useful life, corrosion resistance, and environmental standpoint, so maybe the now proven added earthquake safety and asset protection advantage will drive more conversions.”

“It’s just a matter of time before the big wine companies take the next step, as it makes too much sense over the long term to ignore the many benefits of a plastic rack.” Jones concluded.

Bonar Plastics
“A Brand of Snyder Industries”
Location: Chowchilla, CA
Web: www.bonarwineproducts.com
Email sales@bonarplastics.com

Rack-Master provides a cost effective barrel racking solution with an unlimited useful life that does not require the routine maintenance and refurbishing expenses associated with the corrosion attack on metal barrel racking systems.

Rack-Master’s 100% polyethylene construction provides a sanitary, lightweight barrel racking system that is built to withstand the rigors of fork handling abuse and still maintain an appealing aesthetic appearance.  Rack-Master maximizes  barrel oxygen exposure by limiting barrel contact points. 

Rack-Master is 100% recyclable, eliminating bone-yards of damaged or obsolete steel barrel racks that require disposal or refurbishing services, helping to control your company costs, and protecting the environment.

Bonar’s Wine Master line includes poly Bulk Barrel. Bulk Barrel’s unique proprietary design is virtually impermeable to water and alcohol vapor, which eliminates the leaking and routine topping requirements associated with oak barrel maturation, while allowing valuable oxygen molecules to permeate the vessel’s sidewall.  Bulk Barrel provides superior wine maturation at half the acquisition cost of oak barrels with an indefinite useful life – all without jeopardizing premium wine quality and;  “Winetainer” - the optimum stainless solution to wine making, including a dimple heat transfer surface to facilitate targeted cooling objectives. Winetainer is manufactured using a state-of-the-art robotic manufacturing process that ensures high weld quality and container integrity. All Winetainer products come equipped with a food grade interior weld finish.

Bonar Plastics would like to offer our support and resources to those recently affected by the Napa Earthquake. We understand the need to get back up and operating at this important time of year and would like to remind wineries and winemakers that we have inventory in stock to cover damaged equipment such as replacement racks and bulk barrel tanks. For more information – please click on the links below:

Racks: http://www.bonarwineproducts.com/Products/Rack-Master

Barrels:  http://www.bonarwineproducts.com/Products/Bulk-Barrel