Don S ) wrote:
>>
>> Heavy gasses do not settle out of a mixture of light and heavy gasses.
>> Quite the contrary. At temperatures above absolute zero, molecular motion
>> causes gases to mix automatically.
>>
>> Gases can help reduce wine oxidation, but they must be used with care.
>> Please read what Clark Smith has to say about blanketing wine with gasses
>> here http://www.vinovation.com/ArticleArgon2.htm

>An interesting read Lum but in this section:

> THE MYTH: Carbon dioxide blankets wine.

> THE FACTS: Although substantially heavier than air (44 vs 29 MW),
> the turbulence with which this gas is introduced into a headspace
> through a 1/4" line results in substantially mixing. Dry ice works
> much better, but sets up a worse problem: headspace CO2 dissolves
> rapidly into wine, imploding the tank unless a vacuum relief valve
> (almost always) invisibly allows air to be sucked in.

>I find it curious that they say that the turbulence with which it is
>introduced is a problem and then they go onto introduce their own
>preference, argon, with out any problem. If argon can be introduced
>slowly than so can carbon dioxide. However I can see their point on
>it being dissolved back into the wine.

>They do say that carbon dioxide is heavier than. Therefore it would
>seem that carbon dioxide could be used to blanket the wine except for
>the mentioned problem of having it dissolve back into the wine. This
>would not be a problem in the case I am thinking of as it's right
>after fermentation when the wine is full of CO2.

>Thanks for posting the article.

>Don


Gases really don't settle out by weight. At standard temperature
and pressure, a mixture of gases will be absolutely uniformly
distributed, even in the abscence of turbulence, because of brownian
motion.

In this sense gas is like a fluid--miscible liquids DO NOT settle
out by density or weight or anything like it.

That being the case, the only way to use one gas (Ar, N2, CO2) to
protect wine from another gas (O2) is to use the first gas to drive
out all traces of the second gas.

Which is what Tom was saying several posts back, :-)

Dave
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Dave Breeden