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

by Emmet H. Rixford

Maumené’s
Sulphurer.

The Sulphurer, or Sulphur Burner, the instrument used for the purpose indicated, consists of a wire with a hook at one end, and the other attached to the centre of a long, conical bung ([fig. 13]). It is convenient to have the upper end pass entirely through the bung, allowing the latter to move up and down on the wire, so that the hook can be raised or lowered, according to the position to be occupied in the cask. This is used by attaching the sulphur match to the hook and lowering it into the cask, after lighting it. The objection to this form of instrument is, that the coal or cinder left on the hook, after burning the match, may fall into the cask and give the wine an unpleasant flavor. To avoid this, Mr. Maumené invented a sulphurer, provided with a deep perforated porcelain cup, into which the match is placed and in which it burns, and which retains the carbonized linen ([fig. 14]). A piece of wire cloth bent into a cup of a similar form and attached to the lower end of the wire answers the purpose very well.

Sulphur Matches or Bands may be purchased, or they may be easily manufactured. To make them, melt roll brimstone (stick brimstone), or what is better, flowers of sulphur, over a slow fire (sulphur melts at 115° C. or 239° F.); tear linen or cotton cloth into strips an inch and a half wide and 10 or 12 inches long, and dip them into the melted sulphur, and lay them aside to cool. Then dip again, and repeat the process, dipping and cooling, till the coating of sulphur is of the required thickness, and they should be thickly coated, or it may be necessary to burn too much linen to get sufficient gas. If the sulphur is overheated, the match will be dark-colored.

Sweet scented powders are often added to the sulphur, whose essential oils are disengaged when the sulphur is burned, and the cask is perfumed by their vapors. The substances usually employed are ginger, cinnamon, the flowers of the stock gilly, iris, lavender, thyme, violet, etc., and the matches prepared with the addition of them is generally preferred.

Mr. Maumené says that the smallest amount of this volatile oil gives a perfume to the wine, which is generally advantageous, but Boireau is of opinion, however, that these substances check the combustion of the sulphur, and in a measure neutralize its action, and he prefers the sulphur pure.

To Sulphur a Cask, take a piece of the sulphur match and light it and lower it into the middle of the cask by means of the sulphur burner, and lightly put in the bung of the instrument. By applying the ear to the staves, it can be ascertained if the match is burning. If the air is foul in the cask, and the match will not burn, the noxious gas must be expelled as described under the head of Casks. When the fire is extinguished the burner is withdrawn, care being taken, if the hook is used, not to drop any of the carbonized linen into the cask. If that should happen, the cask must be washed again. As the burning sulphur fills the cask with gas, which exerts considerable pressure, care should be taken that the bung is not blown out into the face of the operator.

Sometimes a strip of the sulphured cloth is lighted at one end and lowered into the cask, the other end being secured by putting in the bung. This is objectionable, because it leaves the debris of the match sticking to the bung and the stave, which may give a disagreeable flavor to the wine. As already mentioned under the head of Casks, never burn a match in a cask containing alcohol.

To Sulphur Wine, if the cask is only partly full, operate the same as in sulphuring an empty cask, only care must be taken not to lower the match into the wine. Here the sulphur burner with a movable bung comes in play. If the cask is full, the gas may be drawn in by burning a match close to a hole bored in the head of the cask somewhat higher than the faucet, drawing from the latter at the same time. It is evident that while the wine runs from the lower hole, the gas will be drawn in at the vent. Where it is necessary to leave a cask with a vacancy in it for some time, flowers and souring may be prevented by burning in it a piece of sulphur match and bunging it up, and the process should be repeated every two weeks, and besides as often as the bung is removed for any purpose. It is better always to keep the cask full, for in time the sulphurous gas will communicate a disagreeable taste to the wine, which it takes a long time to remove.

Sulphuring should be Avoided in Certain Cases.—Ropy wines should not be sulphured, for the presence of oxygen is necessary in order to help their fermentation; nor should those wines be sulphured which it is desirable to keep in a state of effervescence. Sulphur should be very sparingly used in connection with red wines, as it causes them to lose a portion of their color by rendering insoluble the coloring matter, and precipitating it; and for the same reason it is used for bleaching white wines, and it prevents the latter from turning yellow. Liqueur wines which are slow of fermentation should not be sulphured, for they need all the natural aids to fermentation.