James Kornacki is the founder and CEO of Üllo, a wine purification and aeration system designed in Chicago. Kornacki has a sensitivity to the sulfites that are present in wines, but still loves wine. Out of his predicament came the idea for Üllo – allowing for Kornacki to keep the wine, but get rid of the sulfites. Sulfites are chemical preservatives that are added during the wine making process to ensure that the does not oxidize or spoil due to bacteria. This is a necessary part of the global wine industry that allows consumers to drink wines from all over the world. Once a bottle of wine is going to be consumed however, the sulfites have done their job and are no longer needed. Not only are they no longer needed, but they commonly elicit allergic reactions from those who consume them. This is where Üllo comes in to remove those sulfites and leave behind wine, pure and simple.

The Üllo Filtration system uses a food grade polymer to remove the sulfites while the other compounds in wine pass through to reach the drinker. The design by Chicago based MINIMAL is beautifully simple and extremely practical. The filter can be used on top of a carafe or decanter to filter an entire bottle of wine, or can sit on top of a glass to filter out the sulfites of just one glass of wine, while allowing the rest of the bottle to keep the benefits of being preserved with sulfites. Another extremely thoughtful piece of Üllo’s design is its ability to turn on and off the aeration feature to accommodate both red and white wines.

The team at Üllo and their partners at MINIMAL have designed a simple solution to a seemingly complex problem in a beautiful way. With their successful funding on Kickstarter, Üllo is now in the pre-order stages and will be purifying your wine in the near future.

Connect with Üllo
Website: ullowine.com
Twitter: @UlloWine
Instagram: @ullowine

Images compliments of Üllo