Amphora/Terracotta gave me a thought.

[Ebonheart]

I guess one the "new" (re-discovered, more accurately) things in wine is fermenting and storing in terracotta containers. I guess, historically, these types of wines were sealed in the containers with a think layer of olive oil, which would settle on the top of the container and act as an air seal. Sounds like an interesting but effective way to seal a carboy neck. Would that even work? And, I wonder what, if any tastes it would inpart on the wine?

 

[TonyR]

I wouldn't go back in time. The Romans and Greeks used what they had, not saying these people were dumb, I think most were smarter than most people today. They used what was avalable to there technology, we have MUCH better today, stick with it. If you realy want to try, pour a glass of very dry maybe a little Vinegary red wine and pour some olive oil on top let it sit in the basement for a month or 2 and drink it. ::

 

[BernardSmith]

Not an historian but I think that oil was used until fairly recently in traditional home wine making in many parts of Europe - if not the USA. If you siphon the wine or use a spigot then you remove all the wine except for that layer that is close to the oil, but I agree with TonyR: The Romans would also have used lead to sweeten their wine so I am not certain that I would necessarily agree that everything that was viewed as good practice for hundreds of years we would want to follow today.

 

[JohnT]

Not a new idea, nor is it a newly discovered idea.

You can find specially refined food grade oil for this very purpose. Heck, I even carried a can of it in my winery for emergency purposes (although I did end up never using it.

Oil can be a temporary solution to a sudden headspace problem although it is not the best of barriers against the outside elements.

For years winemakers have been putting oil into barrels that were actively being drawn from. As wine is consumed, air is introduced into the barrel. Keep in mind that bottles were hard to come by and most folks drank their wine from the barrel (and not bottle). Oil is not nearly an ideal barrier against the outside elements, but as a secondary and temporary solution to a head space issue, it was far better than nothing.

Today, we have bottles and a variety of container sizes. Keeping headspace to a minimum is the ultimate goal. If the Romans had our choices, they would have chose differently.