Is Somebody Stealing Your Wine?

Why do winemakers use a tool to extract wine from a barrel? Could be that a winemaker might have wanted to know if wine was progressing through the fermentation stages. A cellar master might have wanted to know if wine was ready for drinking…how it tasted, what was the bouquet. Or a wine buyer might have needed to purchase wine in bulk and wanted to know what they were buying. Maybe they were just looking for problems or bacteria in the wine. This all involved wine sampling and was accomplished by utilizing a couple different winery tools. The two winery tools to be discussed in this article are the wine thief and the tastevin. The Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County’s collection has several of these.

Wine Thief, Pipette, or Sampling Tool

A wine thief looks like a long pipe and is made of glass, metal or plastic; different shapes and different sizes but usually long enough to put halfway into the barrel without losing the tool inside. The wine thief’s job is to “steal” wine from the barrel to test at different stages in the winemaking process. A thief is a tubular instrument for removing a sample from a cask or barrel so that the winemaker can test the quality of the wine. Using the thief is fairly simple; the trick is to insert the tool into the barrel at the bung hole. Using one’s thumb and placing it over the hole at the top of the instrument, pull the thief up and the pipette will fill with wine. Once the instrument is outside the barrel, the wine is released into either a wine glass or tastevin for sampling. Because a wine thief is only used to take barrel samples, usually red wine is what is being tasted. At times Chardonnay may be barrel-fermented and tested this way also.

I would say the majority of wine thieves or pipettes have openings on both ends of the tubular instrument. Some were cylindrical, some were pointy, some were bulbous, some were clear, some were tin and sauntered, some were hand-blown glass with a beautiful shape and design by skilled craftspeople, and many were not. The pipette or wine thief is known with some specific names, identifying the shape, structure and material involved. Here are some examples:

• Custom bent thief
• Large barrel glass thief
• Sweep thief
• Barrel bent
• Straight glass
• Straight metal (with strainer or not)

During the initial fermentation period, a wine thief might be used daily for a period of weeks to keep a close eye on the progress. After fermentation, barrels are sampled with the wine thief maybe only every 6-12 months. Each of the barrels will be sampled with the wine thief a couple of times a year to ensure that taste and quality are right before being bottled. Remember, after all those “steals” of wine there is still a finished product that is bottled, labeled and ready to be poured into your glass to be enjoyed.

Sometimes, when referring to whiskey the word ‘valinch’ is substituted for whiskey or bourbon thief. It is also a tube used to take small amounts of the liquor from the bunghole of the cask or barrel for testing.

A Bit of History

Francois-Antoine-Henri Descroizilles (June 11, 1751 – April 15, 1825), a French chemist and pharmacist receiving apothecary in 1778, was a professor of elementary and applied chemistry in Rouen and secretary of the General Council of Manufactures in Paris. Descroizilles invented and first introduced the buret (burette) and pipet (pipette, French, “wine tester”) to science in 1795. He called his burette a “berrholli-metere:” it was a graduated cylinder. He later described an “alkalimetre,” to dispense small volumes of liquids. He created the first and only instrument that gives information of the vinous value of the wines to be distilled, known as the trial ‘still.’ For this he was praised “indefatigable activity, great strength of mind and extreme benevolence.” The terms “burette” and “pipette” were not used in published works to describe this instrument until 1824 when Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (December 6, 1778 – May 9, 1850), a French chemist and physicist known for his discovery that water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, perfected this instrument.

Dipping Dog

Huh? What? This has nothing, yet something, to do with wine thieves.

Distillery workers in 1800s Scotland fabricated cylinders from sheets of copper and brass which they used to pilfer whisky at the distillery. They attached the small cylinder with a chain or a rope which was then secured to the worker’s belt. The cylinder would be lowered into the cask to steal the whisky. Once the cylinder was filled the worker would seal the opening with a cork and conceal it in their pant leg, thus allowing the “thieves” to easily take a drink on the job or sneak it out of the distillery.

The cylinder became known as a ‘dog’ on account of it being referred to as a whisky man’s best friend; it was also kept on a lead by one’s side. Now known as a dipping dog, most likely it would not be down someone’s pant leg but utilized by the Malt Master to sample the whisky directly from the cask.

By the way…the crime punishment was immediate dismissal for getting caught with the dog.

Tastevin

Tastevins, also called wine tasters, sommelier’s cups, tatevin (tater = to taste), Taste Vins or Taste-de-vin are small, shallow bowls and usually made of sterling silver. However, these cups can also be made of porcelain, pewter, glass, tin-glazed, earthenware, electroplate silver, and OSP (organic solderability preservative). They were designed to assist with the taste, smell, and observation of the color of wine, used primarily prior to serving or purchase of wine.

Since the 15th century, according to my historical readings, English and French winemakers drew samples of wine from the wine barrels with their pipettes to place in their tastevins in the process of commercial trade of wine. The tastevin has a domed center with or without a handle and holds less than a half ounce of wine. This provides for a maximum surface area and assists the “taster” to identify the bouquet, color and clarity, and taste of the wine. The ‘golden era’ for regular use of these tasters was during the 18th and 19th centuries.

This is something of interest: it seems there was a serious economic crisis that occurred during the early 1930s in the Burgundy, French Bourgogne région. There was a slump in the wine business – not enough of the wine being sold to “sought-after” customers and not enough money coming in to the winemaker. And so, one thing led to another and there was the “birth” of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin organization on November 16, 1934. Note: This organization was originally founded in 1703 as a Bacchanalian fraternity. The wine industry in Burgundy was reinvigorated by this “rebirth.” Rather than go to Paris to have their wines tasted, the organization invited and welcomed friends with a ritual and unique atmosphere; it certainly helped to bring tourists to the region.

To this day, the people of Burgundy keep the tastevin in their pocket for it is a tool and essential utensil for both winegrowers and wine tasters. The Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, or translates as Fraternity of Knights of the Wine-Tasting Cup, and is known to be an organization that claims “to magnify wine at its noblest.”

Louis Violland

Look at the emblem on this Meursault Clos de la Baronne 1955 Maison Louis Max. Does it seem familiar? It’s the Coat of Arms of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin organization. This wine house is one of the oldest in Burgundy. In 1844, Leon Louis-Violland planted vines and was eventually a grape merchant. The cellars were located under 12th and 13th century buildings in the middle of the village of Beaune. Maison Violland made wine between the late 1940s and 1970s. Those wines, if they can be found, are collectors items as they were known to be long-lived reds.

One more thing…

Silver objects that are sold commercially are usually stamped with one or more silver hallmarks. French silver is punched with the mark of the maker, by law in the shape of a lozenge, usually with the maker’s initials or name. Hallmarks are applied with a hammer and punch and are generally done before the piece goes for its final polishing.