OXYGEN
O₂'s Role
Popular Gases
The Problem

MYTH 1
Nitrogen
Facts

MYTH 2
Carbon Dioxide
The Facts

MYTH 3
Pressure Regulators
The Facts

MYTH 4
Argon Expense
The Facts

DELIVERY SYSTEMS
Laminarity
Rule of Thumb

MEASUREMENT

DOING IT RIGHT

CHEAPING IT OUT

TABLE 1

GAS FUNDAMENTALS

ARGON: WHAT A GAS!

by Clark Smith

All her pretty dreams argon.-Bruce Springsteen

Oxygen is not the enemy of wine. Yet the most outspoken proponents of O₂'s role in wine development will still scrupulously try to exclude it from partial tank headspaces. We all gotta gas. But in reality, few of us do it well. And in an imperfect world, it is not enough to shrug and say, "We just try to keep topped tanks".

Doing it right is a tricky business. To begin with, the two popular gases, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, both have insidious difficulties which make them terrible choices for excluding air. Vinovation receives dozens of bulk wine shipments weekly from our 500 clients, a large cross-section of California wineries.