The Wine Press and the Cellar: A Manual for the Wine-Maker and the Cellar-Man

by Emmet H. Rixford

Ulling or Filling Up.—Owing to the escape of gas and to evaporation, vacant spaces are rapidly formed in the casks which must be filled with the same kind of wine as that contained in them. It is well to keep a certain amount of the wine of each vintage in smaller vessels, to be used for this purpose, such as barrels, kegs, demijohns, and bottles, according to the extent of the vintage. If one vessel is partly emptied, the remaining wine should be put into a smaller one. It is absolutely necessary that all of the casks be kept full or the wine will spoil. (See exceptions under [Sweet Wine].) For this purpose, during the first week they should be filled every day or two, then two or three times the next week, and later, once a week, once in two weeks, and finally once a month. This is governed a good deal by the rapidity of the evaporation, which depends upon the cellar or place of storage. This operation is performed by means of any vessel with which the wine can easily be poured into the bung-hole; the convenient utensil, however, is a vessel in the form of a small watering pot with a long spout, with which the bung can easily be reached. (Figs. [7] and [8].) A good substitute is an ordinary tin funnel with a flexible rubber tube attached to the small opening. Where the casks are piled up in the cellar so that the bungs cannot otherwise be reached, a funnel called the Z funnel ([fig. 9]) is used, which is provided with a long spout or tube turning at right angles to the upper part, and whose tip turns down, and which can easily be passed between the casks to the bung. If, however, the bung cannot be reached, a small hole is bored in the upper part of the head of the cask, and the wine put in with a Z funnel whose tube turns at right angles but does not turn down at the tip ([fig. 10].) The vent is opened in the highest part of the bulge, and wine is poured into the funnel whose tip is in the end hole till it rises to the vent, which is then closed, and the funnel is removed and the hole closed.

Fig. 7.

Fig. 8.

Ulling Pots.

Fig. 9.

Z Funnel.

Fig. 10.