Imagine the last glass tasting a

These are questions that people who enjoy wine face daily. That joy can be short lived as experienced by those who have opened a bottle of wine. We will discuss the truth about these issues and what you can do to preserve your wine.

The wine maker has gone to great lengths to make the very best product of the vine for you. He has done what he can to give the wine longevity. It would be great to have said” the last glass tasted as good as the day it was made.” That can be a reality! But first let’s look inside the juice itself.

Most of what we consume is cooked and served or cooked and canned. There are many things in natural produce that are alive. The cooking kills or destroys many of these. Enzymes are not live because they are molecules. But they can be dissolved in cooking. So the best way to get the enzyme that aids in our digestion is in wine. That is why it is important to drink wine with food. There are many other interesting things in wine but what concerns us is that these are alive and preserved because the grape is not cooked.

This is all great, but it also creates a few problems when we want our wines to last for years. Alcohol alone is not enough to preserve wine. Sulfites can be produced by fermentation or added by the wine maker. Sulfur was first used about 2,000 years ago. Wine had to last until the next harvest because the wine was kept in animal skins averaging about 18 gallons. The wine in the skin was placed over an open fire so the sulfur from the smoke could penetrate the skin and preserve it for about a year. The skin was the first “bag” container used to keep O2 separated from wine.

When wine was sold commercially, a new type of container was needed. Glass opened even more opportunities. Eventually the oil people discovered how to make a wooden container. To this day oil is referred to as a barrel of oil. The wine makers started using the barrel so they could ship by boat. Shipping finally became successful when a higher alcohol wine was made and called “Port”.

The use of sulfite today began about 200 years ago. The characteristic of sulfite is that is doesn’t stay in liquid. It wants to escape as a gas. So it is used in wine bottles because of corks. A cork will not enter a bottle without an air space. This space has oxygen. The sulfite leaches out and mixes with the air to inhibit the O2. This works up to a point. Large amounts of sulfite have to be used for long shipping periods and in fruit wines. The extra sulfite which is usually found in foreign wines can be expelled in a decanter. A decanter does not lower the alcohol because the hydrogen atom in alcohol unites with the hydrogen atom in H2O. Some use nitrogen when bottling - but does this really help? Why does a wine still fail in time even though they are in a bottle, sealed with a cork or screw top? Later we will talk about the simple solution to all these issues.

The culprit is oxidation. Some have mistakenly attached “vinegar”, “aging” or just: “It’s going bad” with this biggest enemy - oxygen. There are a few things oxygen cannot be blamed for. One is the lack of sanitation in the wine making process. In time acids, color and sediments or proteins can naturally drop out and these are called drags. Vinegar can only occur if the wine is exposed to a certain bacteria that produce vinegar. Actual spoilage is very rare.

The head space in a bottle really is not needed if you get rid of the cork. Manufactures today have recognized the value of no head space. Fruit juices are packaged today with no head space. Even milk can be sold in a box with no refrigeration because there is no head space. If wine was packaged with a screw top and filled completely to the top it would last years longer with no browning or “Sherry” taste. Bagged wine usually has a 6 month shelf life because there is a small air bubble trapped when the tap is connected. We will discuss this later.

What is oxidation? It can be detected in wine by color, taste and smell. The rule of thumb is a white should be consumed within 2 years and a red in 5 years. A white or lower acid wine will gradually turn brown and reds or higher acid wines get lighter and also browns. The taste starts turning to a Sherry or cooking wine taste. The smell is also “Sherry” and the fresh “nose” is gone. In order to understand the solution, we have to know a little about air and how it works.

In order to make Science interesting I like to use illustrations. An apple is a good example. Some apple cores will not turn brown for several minutes. Others can start browning by the time you eat all the way around. The browning is oxidation and the timing is different because of the acid concentrations. Apples can last a long time thanks to a waxy coating. It’s been said that an apple will never spoil if it is polished every day. So let’s learn from the apple.

Put an apple core in the refrigerator and it will still brown. Put it in an empty wine bottle; then pump it, vacuum it, inject the bottle with gases or put lot’s of preservatives in with it and it will still turn brown. Now fill the bottle completely with water and push the water out with nitrogen leaving behind the core in a sealed bottle. It will never turn brown. Why? It’s because there is no oxygen. Purging or blasting a bottle only dilutes the air in the head space and waste expensive gas. O2 must be removed 100%. But what about “heavy gases that blanket the wine, don’t they work?”

It sounds good but does it work? Let’s illustrate with a volcano. CO2 or carbon dioxide is molecularly a heavy gas. It is not a poisonous gas but can be dangerous. An entire village, people and animals, died because a volcano near by leaked CO2. They were in a low lying area and the heavy gas built up and suffocated everyone. So you may conclude that this is proof to use gases in wine making. There needs to be at least 4% oxygen for life to be sustained. To stop oxidation it needs to be 0%. Upon a closer examination it was discovered that there was a large and continuous supply of CO2 from the volcano which could not dilute fast enough and caused suffocation. When it was exhausted, the gas dissipated. How hard is it to rid the bottle of all the oxygen?

In a grade school experiment, a candle is placed in a bottle and then lit. A boiled egg is placed on top to show a vacuum force. When the fire went out, was all the oxygen gone? No. There was still about 17% inside. It is a losing battle to fight oxygen but it is easy to control. Before we find out how - let’s clear up the one myth that can cost you money. Does a heavy gas blanket wine?

The answer is yes only if there is a steady source. If there is a gas “spill” or a damaged cylinder a person must get to a source of fresh air as soon as possible. But when this occurs, does the heavy gas “hang around?” The answer is no - but why? To understand the answer we only have to look to air. How does it work?

No one really knows how, but we all know it works. Air is one of the marvels of our planet. Air is basically molecules that keep their distance but collect together. In space there is no air - this is why astronauts have to take it with them. Air is made up of about 17 known gases with nitrogen coming in at 78% and oxygen at 21%. All these gases have a different molecular weight. So do we have an oxygen layer and a nitrogen layer in our atmosphere of air? Thankfully no! If this was true, the earth would be covered by nitrogen for several miles high. What keeps air working for us?

Think of air as a lot of little magnets. These molecules perform a huge task. They have a preset formula based on percentages. A forest fire tries to change this formula. But smoke is not part of this formula so the air will eventually reject it and drop it out, timing depending on the source and supply. We need oxygen in the winter so these “magnates” are busy keeping the formula together by bringing oxygen from the equator in the trade winds. The air is thin at high altitudes but the formula is still there. Jets don’t carry oxygen to breath because it was discovered that the air from outside only needed to be compressed, thus the “pressurized cabin.” Our lives depend on this formula but it makes it very difficult to keep gases separated. So purging is like diluting yellow water with blue water - you’re always going to end up with green water. What is the solution?

All the methods to protect wine from O2 discussed so far are difficult and yield little results. The solution is simple and easy. Wine bags are the first method to control oxidation. Wine does have an advantage over plain juice. The yeast during fermentation has used up nearly all the oxygen bound up in the liquid. So we only have to concern ourselves with the ambient air. Our small bag filler is not only affordable but it fills with zero air trapped inside. We have an ongoing test to see how many years pure juice will last in a wine bag. This is an important step in shipping wine. All the problems of days gone by can be a thing of the past. Old wine can now taste fresh. Glass bottles have the highest shipping rate of any category.

Already we have learned how to get rid of the cork and save money on shipping. Now what do we do with the bag of wine? Boxed wine may be the best way to go and save the most money. But the stigma of “cheap wine” has been around as long as the bag. What can be done about that problem?

WineRackSystems has developed the N2Wine dispenser which can prolong the life of all wines years beyond the life in a bottle. Restaurants and others who serve wine can now offer wine at the right temperature and as fresh as the day it was made. It took years for wine to come this far. Now it is time to be “winged from the bottle” and start enjoying truly fine wine.

We don’t fight oxygen. We are glad it’s here. The difference is we have learned how to deal with it. Our system works by topping up in our sanitized glass. Even the hidden gas lines are purged of air. Zero air is where you start and finish. We also use only 1 ½ to 3 Pounds of gas. Argon is very rare and expensive. Now that we know “heavy is not the secret but how we use them is. Nitrogen seems to be the best way to go as long as it is pure food grade.

At a later time we will offer gas bottles but will never ship gas in the larger cylinders. It is best to buy it locally. We have the large “Wine Cellar” that holds 70 bottles by volume. The next model: the “Server” holding 35 bottles. We are now working on a home version in a single which holds 8 bottles and a double for 2 wines and a triple which offers 3 wines on a rotating stand. All of the N2Wine models come with electronic cooling, gas attachment and regulator. Every item is plug and go - ready to use.

This is a simple demonstration using a heavy gas called sulfur hexafluoride. The point of interest to wine consumers is this:

The foil boat sank because the gas was diluted by air. Note the rate at which this took place. The cup only added to the illusion of

filling the boat causing it to sink. Always remember this - It takes zero percent of oxygen to prevent oxidation. Diluting air with gas

helps a little, but toping up protects for years. Conclusion: Always buy the newest wines and quickly transfer them into the N2Wine.

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