14. Fumigation

Fumigation

Dr. Ure states that fermentation may be stopped by the application or admixture of substances containing sulfur; that the operation consists partly in absorbing oxygen, whereby the elimination of the yeasty particles is prevented. Adams in his Roman Antiquities, on the authority of Pliny and others, says “that the Romans fumigated their wines with the fumes of sulfur; that they also mixed with the mustum, newly pressed juice, yolks of eggs, and other articles containing sulfur. When thus defaecabantur (from defaeco, ‘to cleanse from the dregs, to strain through a strainer, refine, purify, defecate’), it was poured (diffusum) into smaller vessels or casks covered over with pitch, and bunged or stopped up.”

Gardiner, in his Dictionary of the Arts, article Wine, says: “The way to preserve new wine, in the state of must, is to put it up in very strong but small casks, firmly closed on all sides, by which means it will be kept from fermenting. But if it should happen to fall into fermentation, the only way to stop it isby the fumes of sulfur”—Dr. Lees’ Works, vol. ii.

Here we notice two important facts. The first is, that the exclusion of the air from the fresh juice will prevent fermentation. The second is, that, when fermentation has commenced, the fumes of sulfur will arrest it. How more certainly it will prevent fermentation if applied to the new wine.

Cyrus Reading says of sulfur, “Its object is to impart to wine clearness and the principle of preservation, and to prevent fermentation”—Nott, London Ed. p. 82.

Mr. T.S. Carr says that the application of the fumarium to the mellowing of wines was borrowed from the Asiatics, and that the exhalation would go on until the wine was reduced to the state of a syrup”—Kitto, ii. 956.

“Such preparations,” says Sir Edward Barry, “are made by the modern Turks, which they frequently carry with them on long journeys, and occasionally take as a strengthening and reviving cordial”—Kitto, ii. 956.

“In the London Encyclopaedia ‘stum’ is termed an unfermented wine; to prevent it from fermenting, the casks are matched, or have brimstone burnt in them”—Nott, London Ed. p. 82.

Count Dandalo, on the Art of Preserving the Wines of Italy, first published at Milan, 1812, says, “The last process in wine-making is sulfurization: its object is to secure the most long-continued preservation of all wines, even of the very commonest sort”—Nott. A familiar illustration and confirmation may be had from the expressed juice of the apple. If the fresh unfermented apple-juice is not cider, what is it? Every boy, straw in hand, knows that it is cider—so does every farmer and housewife. After it has fermented, it is also called cider. It is a generic word, applicable to the juice of the apple in all its stages, just as yayin in the Hebrew, oinos in the Greek, vinum in the Latin, and wine in English are generic words, and denote the juice of the grape in all conditions. When the barrel is filled with the fresh unfermented juice of the apple, add sulfur, or mustard-seed, make the barrel air-tight, and keep it where it is cold, and fermentation will not take place. When the gluten has subsided and, by its specific gravity, has settled at the bottom, the pure unfermented juice may be bottled and kept sweet. This, men call cider; they have no other name for it. In all these four methods, but one object is sought—it is to preserve the juice sweet.