It’s time to get gassy with everything you want to know about inert gases in winemaking.

If you are an avid reader of yours truly, then you’ll remember last time when we looked at how oxygen is the enemy and how we will not rest until it is stopped…

That’s probably something you would remember, so if you missed it you can go ahead and find a new blog.

But actually we need you, I need you, you’re probably the only reader we have, so please please stay and check out the last article here.

Okay, so the battle rages on against the dark side and your goal today is to prevent air from getting to the holy grail, your grape juice. 

This can happen anytime you are moving juice around the winery, whether it’s between tanks or barrels or what have you. The only way to do it is to have a closed system and to flush the containers prior to transfer.

You do this by flooding the tanks and pipes with an “inert” gas. Since creativity is running dry, let’s call this “inert” gas the Jedi.

Essentially the Jedi is too strong with the force and pushes the oxygen out of the tanks and pipes allowing you to practice “anaerobic” winemaking. 

Meet the Inert Gases in Winemaking

Let’s meet the gang!

The two most common “Jedi” used are Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide. Though master Argon is growing stronger every day with a rise in popularity among winemakers.

The reason all of this matters is because grape juice collects oxygen, fast.

The juice collects oxygen when the must is moved between containers, as it comes into contact with oxygen, it readily dissolves into it.

If you think that doesn’t sound good, then you are correct. Now it’s in your wine and it’s working against you from the inside.

How does oxygen dissolve into the wine? If you really want to dig deeper then check out this post!

The main thing to know is that it does happen. It is not immediate, but it may react with catalysts to speed up the process. Obviously, we want to avoid these catalysts.

Depending on the winemaking style, there can be many naturally occurring catalysts, who are more than happy to assist with this chemical reaction.

Ah, the lure to the dark side is ever strong. Much power you could have.

An example of a catalyst would be metal ions and this is a great example because it used to happen all the time. The old school winemakers would use equipment made from copper and bronze because, well I don’t know.

Either way, the metal ions in copper and bronze actually increase the speed of oxidation, this did not bold well for them. As such, these materials have quickly been outdated in the latest winemaking machinery.

So what to do, how do we get rid of this pesky oxygen? Meet your new, spooky Jedi friend Carbon Dioxide.

Carbon Dioxide is invisible, hence why it is so scary and also may not be your friend… The plot thickens.

You may know this already, but it’s worth mentioning, the reason it’s less friendly is that Carbon dioxide can be fatal for humans. 

Even if it is fatal, it’s easy to use and best of all, it’s cheap!

It works because it is heavier than air and by sheer force will push the oxygen out of the way.

What you, as the winemaker, can do is to slowly apply Carbon Dioxide to the bottom of a container before adding the wine. Then as the volume of CO2 increases in the tank, it will rise and push the oxygen right out of the top. As my Aussie mates like to say “Too easy mate”.

One way winemakers can do this is by adding blocks of frozen carbon dioxide or “dry ice” to the bottom of the tank just before transitioning the juice over.

As the wine comes into contact with the dry ice it will warm up and release carbon dioxide. This will then rise up past the wine to push the oxygen out of the container. 

Susan may be asking, well how much dry ice do I need? How do I know it will be enough?

Lucky for you and Susan, the math on this is fairly simple. You need the same amount of gas as the volume of the container you want to fill. Simple!

The exact math is two pounds of dry ice will produce 16.6 cubic feet of CO2. In Canadian terms, this is 1kg of dry ice will produce 0.5 cubic meters.

Sounds pretty easy, well too much haha and pretty soon boohoo (Scrubs anyone?) because as mentioned before Carbon Dioxide may not be your friend and has some drawbacks, but we will cover those next time.

Also to note that while you’ve been trying to avoid Oxygen from dissolving into your precious wine, the unfortunate news is that Carbon Dioxide also dissolves into the wine.

Well, that’s it for inert gases in winemaking. Winemaking can be tough and sometimes it’s just easier to drink the wine.