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WINEMAKING Enartis/Vinquiry of California distributes the Carbodoseur (left), a French product that retails for $260. The Hach Orbisphere portable CO2 lyzer (center) measures thermal conductivity. Anton-Paar's CarboQC infers CO2 content from repeated volumetric expansion. ing done about as much nasty lab work as anyone in the industry. Much easier and more common today is a hand-held gizmo known as the Car- bodoseur, made in France by the Labora- toires Dujardin-Salleron—though the usual stateside pronunciation is a very un-French Carbo-doser. Enartis/Vinquiry in California distributes the Carbodoseur, which sells for a modest $260, and they sell a lot of them. The method of analysis starts with a mea- sured volume of wine, which is then shaken QualityStainless_Apr05 3/9/05 and re-shaken (sort of like a cocktail mixer) until all the CO2 has de-gassed itself into an outer chamber; the shrunken wine vol- ume is then re-measured, and a handy chart translates the results into milligrams per li- ter of CO2 . From the instructions, it's clear 11:12 AM this method is subject to considerable user variation—temperature, the angle of the shaking, etc.—and not likely to match the fancy setups in accuracy. But for a quick, rough reading, maybe within 100 mg/L of the "true" level, it's fine. And that may be Page 1 Quality - Value - Experience Quality Stainless Tanks • Professionally crafted • Perfomance guaranteed • Custom designs & features • Quick & competitive pricing • Repairs & modifications • Special application tanks • Stainless winery equipment • Tanks in stock for immediate shipping from 500 to 10,000 gallon capacity Quality Stainless Tanks 510 Caletti Avenue • Windsor, CA 95492 Phone: 707.837.2721 • Fax: 707.837.2733 Toll-Free: 877.598.0672 www.qualitystainless.com winetanks@aol.com 68 Wines & Vines MAY 201 1 Fabricated Stainless Cooperage Custom all that most people need. Vinquiry, in fact, uses it for its own CO2 testing. Finally, there is a time-honored measur- invoking Moore's Law and pushing some ing device, and the price is right: the human palate. For experienced tasters, a sample of wine may not reveal exact numbers, but it does indicate whether a wine is too spritzy, too flat or right in the winery's target zone. If that prickle on your tongue is a drag, sparge with some nitrogen, which will alter the chemical state of the CO2 , thus ana- 2011 W&V Directory & Buyer's Guide Now Available! Gain access to the industry's largest database. winesandvinesbuyersguide.com (866) 453-9701