The Wine Maker's Answer Book by Alison Crowe

The Wine Maker's Answer Book by Alison Crowe

Author:Alison Crowe
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
Published: 2007-12-17T16:00:00+00:00


Q What are some good tips on topping up and managing my headspace?

A Finished wine and air don’t mix. Oxygen can oxidize aroma and color components, while air-loving bacteria (especially Acetobacter) will inevitably infect unprotected wine. During bulk aging, when a wine’s aromas and flavors are developing, it’s critical to exclude air. Headspace in containers must be managed in order to avoid exposing our wine to excess air while aging.

We can do this in one of three ways: by keeping our wine in containers appropriate for the volume, by adding wine to fill or completely top up our containers, or by blanketing the wine’s surface with a gas heavier than air.

It’s usually a challenge for winemakers to always have the perfect-sized storage vessels on hand for completely topped batches. This is why topping up, or filling any spare headspace with wine, is so important. I always try to use the same wine when topping because there’s a much lower risk of introducing foreign or unstable agents. Such instabilities can cause refermentation, bacterial infection, or precipitation. Similarly, if you top a wine that’s going through malolactic fermentation, you must not top up with previously sulfured wine — even a tiny amount of free SO2 from another lot could inhibit or halt the malolactic fermentation of your current batch.

Gassing empty headspace with a gas heavier than air is another way to manage your headspace. In this case you carefully lay a “blanket” of gas on top of the surface of your wine. If you have a source of CO2 or argon (welding-supply stores and, increasingly, winemaking supply stores will carry small gas cylinders), gas a slightly smaller container well and siphon the wine into it, being careful not to aerate the wine any more than is necessary.

To do this, take the empty container and stick the nozzle or hose of the gas can as far as possible into the bottom. Dispense the gas slowly. The goal is to create a blanket of gas on the bottom of the container without creating turbulence and mixing oxygen into the layer.

Then take a small siphon hose and place one end in your container of wine and the other end in the very bottom of the empty container into which you’ve just placed the gas. Siphon the wine very slowly so as not to mix in any air. Be careful not to splash.



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