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The effect of certain simplifications in calculations of alcoholic distillation columns, such as to consider ethanol and water as the only components and to neglect heat losses is analyzed. The effect of reducing the number of components in the wine, from nine to the binary ethanol+water, over the enthalpy of the streams is discussed. The analysis was done from a nine components solution to the binary system ethanol-water. Three models for estimating the required properties were used showing that results are not significantly affected. The effects of heat losses by convection and radiation were estimated on both rectifying and purifying columns for insulated and non insulated cases were evaluated. The paper shows that the simplifications introduced to the HYSYS simulator are correct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]