and the Method of making Wines. 313 



That wine may keep, and improve in quality, it ought to 

 be put into veffels deposited in proper places, the choice of 

 which is not a matter of indifference. Glafs vefTels are the 

 moft favourable, becaufe, befides their presenting no principle 

 foluble in wine, they fhelter it from the contact or the air, 

 from moifture, and the principal variations of the atmo- 

 fphere. Care muft be taken to fhut thefe velTels very clofely 

 with good cork ; and to lay the bottles on their fides, that 

 the cork may not dry, and facilitate the accefs of the air. 

 For the greater fafety, the cork may be covered with a coating 

 of wax, applied by means of a brum ; or the neck of the 

 bottle may be immerfed in a mixture of melted wax, refin, 

 and pitch. Some people cover the wine with a ftratum of 

 oil : this procefs is recommended by Baccius. The neck is 

 then covered with an inverted glafs tumbler, a veffel of tin 

 plate, or any matter capable of preventing infects or mice 

 from falling into the wine. 



The veffels moft generally employed for keeping wine are 

 cafks, which for the moft part are made of oak. They vary 

 in fize, and are known by different names, fuch as pipes, 

 hogfheads, &c. The great inconvenience of cafks is, that 

 they not only prefent to the wine fubftances which are foluble 

 in it, but that they are affected by the variations of the atmo- 

 fphere, and afford a paiTage both to the air which endeavours 

 to efcape from them, and to that of the atmofphere which 

 penetrates them. 



Glazed earthen vefTels have the advantage of retaining a 

 more equal temperature; but they are more or lefs porous, 

 and at length the wine in them muft become dry. In the 

 ruins of Herculaneum vefTels were found in which the wine 

 had dried. Rozier fpeaks of a fimilar urn discovered in a 

 vineyard in the territory of Vienne in Dauphiny, in a place 

 where the palace of Pompey had formerly ftood. The Ro- 

 mans remedied the porofity of earthen veffels by covering 

 them with wax on the infide, and pitch on the outflde : they 

 covered alfo the whole furface with wax cloths, which they 

 applied with great care. 



Pliny condemns this ufe of wax, becaufe, he fays, it made 

 the wine turn four : Nam ceram accipientibus v Jis, compertum 

 ejl vina ace/cere. 



Whatever may be the nature of the veffels deftined to con- 

 tain wine, a cellar fheltered from all accidents muft be chofen. 



1 ft, The expofure of the cellar muft be northern : its tem- 

 perature is then lefs variable than when the apertures are 

 turned towards the fouth. 



ad, It mull be of fuch a depth that the temperature may be 

 3 conftantly 



