In our cellar we’re adding new 10 hl barrels which we believe are very suitable for the winemaking project we have set ourselves. The new transparent glass fillers arrived together with the barrels.
There is no wine tourist and wine lover who is not enchanted by these very fragile bottles upside down on the barrels.
The Fillers are made up of two parts called “bubbles”, the lower one is inserted into the bunghole (this is the name of the hole present on the barrels) to be in direct contact with the wine, the upper one instead fits onto the first one and is filled of water so that it acts as a “liquid” stopper for the wine underneath.
The Colmatore allows you to see the level of the wine and to “fill” the barrel without opening it, so as to avoid exposing the wine to the air and the consequent oxidation processes. In fact, the level of wine in the barrel often tends to change due to the evaporation and expansion of the wood even for minimal changes in the environmental temperature.
Furthermore, the bubbler lets out any carbon dioxide bubbles that may be generated during and after winemaking, thus preventing the pressure inside the barrels from increasing. These bubbles coming out of the bubblers produce a singular “musicality” like a concert made up of different mumblings scattered throughout the cellar, which reminds us again of the connection that wine has with nature, science and art.
The origin is rather vague, there are unverifiable sources that trace this invention back to Leonardo Da Vinci. Given the simple genius of the design of this instrument, we would not be surprised at all if the first example had been designed by our very own great inventor, Tuscan by birth and lover of good wine.
