Wine education – what’s a barboteur?

You walk into a winery and the sound of fermentation fills your ears as the barrels bubble away turning ripe grape juice into wine.

On the top of each barrel is a little gismo that appears to be bubbling away. That’s a barboteur! So what is a barboteur and what does it do?

The word barboteur comes from the verb barboter, a technical word used in the laboratory when dealing with gases that bubble through a liquid.

A barboteur is used as a bung for fermenting barrels of wine. It allows the carbon dioxide to escape while at the same time, keeping oxygen out.

A barboteur doing its job at Domaine Carême in the Vouvray appellation