VinAssure™ would like to thank Bruce Currie [Staff Research Associate III in the Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California – Davis] for his help in our selection of the gas we use.

We asked Mr. Currie if he would recommend Argon over Nitrogen for our device:

“ Yes. Argon is heavier than Nitrogen and stays in the bottle better, both on top of the wine and doesn't leak out as easily.”

We wanted to be sure the Argon we use would be as clean as we could get.  After investigating, we found that Industrial Argon can often be stored in cylinders that have been previously used for other gases and might be slightly contaminated.

Mr. Currie said:

“…..there could be oil in the Industrial Grade Argon for example.”

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Our Air Liquide ALIGAL™ Argon is the ‘first run’ gas in Argon production.  The gas is then sealed in special, cleaned cylinders and that ‘chain of custody’ is maintained through delivery to the end-user. The cylinders we receive are sealed in plastic and belong to Air Liquide, not an industrial middleman.

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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. Dissolved oxygen readings on incoming wines indicate that even the most savvy wineries have not managed to establish proper inert gas procedures. The predictable response to our phone call: But we gassed the heck out of it! typically turns out to mean fifteen or twenty minutes of nitrogen from a high pressure cylinder through 1/4 line at 40 psi, or CO₂ until freeze-up.

Although trucking is an easy time for procedures to slip, I believe that many winemakers have simply not thought the problem through. As a result, proliferation of myth and copying of poor procedures have resulted in a state full of wineries that do not use inert gas wisely. Fallacies include undersized delivery systems, failure to measure volumes (with a flowmeter) and results (with an O₂ meter), and unenlightened cost analysis. In an effort to reduce D.O. post-shipment, several large wineries routinely nitrogen-sparge all incoming wines upon receipt! This practice is guaranteed to strip flavor, and treats the symptom rather than attacking the real problem on the shipping end.

THE MYTH: Nitrogen is the Cadillac of inert gases.

THE FACTS: Nitrogen is air without oxygen. As such, it is slightly lighter than air, and has no blanketing effect. If x = number of headspace volumes delivered, the fraction air = 1/ex. This means that after one volume, the headspace (and the wine beneath it) will have = 1/e, or 40% saturation; after two volumes, 1/e2 - 16%; for three volumes, 1/e3 = 5%; and so forth. Correct headspace gassing with nitrogen requires a large effort of will: huge supplies, delivery systems geared for high volumes, trained personnel, and headspace measurement instrumentation.

THE MYTH: Carbon dioxide blankets wine.

THE FACTS: Although substantially heavier than air (44 vs 29 MW), the turbulence with which this gas is introduced into a headspace through a 1/4" line results in substantially mixing. Dry ice works much better, but sets up a worse problem: headspace CO₂ dissolves rapidly into wine, imploding the tank unless a vacuum relief valve (almost always) invisibly allows air to be sucked in.

THE MYTH: Argon is expensive.

THE FACTS: Argon by volume costs three times more than nitrogen by volume. But it is so much more effective than in actual use it can do a better job for less money. In many cases, a blanket that stays put will do the job better than several complete headspace volumes of nitrogen. Argon is the cheapest and most effective means for most inert gassing. In truth, gas cost is chump change. At 6.5 cents a cubic foot, an entire 1000 gallon headspace full of argon costs nine bucks. A barrel of argon costs fifty cents. Figuring which gas to use in a specific application will usually blow the savings as brain labor. Vinovation has nothing but argon on premise, because it's never the wrong choice.