The "spouts" on the top of each barrel are how the wine breathes during fermentation. Water is poured in the top once it's tapped the barrel and a glass put upside down on top of that. If the barrel is pushed, as it was on our tour, the wine passes gas via the spout on the top. And the wine never is touched by air, which would ruin everything.
This arrangement was created by someone famous, probably Leonardo, the original multi-tasker and overachiever, not long after the dawn of time. I wasn't really listening to the tour guide. I was looking at the doorway I was standing in, at the barrel behind me, fidgeting and wondering how I could buy a house in Italy and move the dogs there.
Ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment