498 Transactions of the 



which makes a wine so detestably bad that it can be utilized only by 

 being converted into brandy. This wine contains but six degrees of 

 .alcohol, producing low wines not exceeding thirty degrees at the first 

 run. These low wines require a second distillation, both of which being 

 made carefully, produces a brandy which requires no further rectifica- 

 tion. 



There seems to be a very prevailing opinion that brandy should be free 

 of all the volatile oils, and especially of the fusel oil; and some persons 

 engaged in the manufacture of brandy, or in the construction of stills, 

 advise you that they can manufacture brandy of eighty-five to ninety 

 degrees entirely free of fusel oil. I need hardly tell your Association 

 that brandy without fusel oil is not brandy at all, and that when dis- 

 tilled at eighty-five to ninety degrees approaches so nearly to alcohol 

 that, like it, it has neither odor nor flavor, and becomes neutral in both. 

 The proper strength to be given to brandy when running from the dis- 

 tillery is, after -the selection of the grape, the most important subject 

 for investigation. It should vary with the material used, and can only 

 be determined after close observation, by an experienced person of deli- 

 cate sense of smell and taste. This point being once determined, dis- 

 tillation above it will diminish the bouquet and flavor, and distillation 

 below that point will introduce an excess of the volatile oils, and the 

 delicate character of the brandy will be lost, or rather disappear through 

 the injurious effects produced by the excess of fusel and other oils. The 

 requirements of the revenue laws, that a distiller shall run his distillery 

 to a certain capacity, is a direct violation of the distiller's interest. My 

 experience has been that the qualities of the brandy will very much 

 depend upon the slowness of its manufacture. Formerly I made a gallon 

 of brandy in two minutes; now I make a gallon in eight minutes — just 

 fast enough to come within the capacity required by the Government. 



Another subject of great importance, and considered in France as the 

 one of the greatest difficulty, is the selection of the oak to be used for 

 the brandy package. They assert that American oak will injure any 

 brandy put into it. They employ the oak brought from Austria, to the 

 exclusion of every other, and expect that the oak shall be not only 

 not injurious to the brandy, but that it shall impart to it a peculiar taste 

 that they consider highly advantageous. In the absence of all foreign 

 oak I have been compelled to use the American, or Canadian oak, first 

 steaming it thoroughly. I find that after steaming it for one hundred 

 hours, with steam at twenty pounds pressure, the water from the con- 

 densed steam escapes of an inky color, disagreeably and excessively 

 acid. The packages that I have adopted are oval in form, of about 

 eight hundred gallons, supported upon four by eight timber, resting upon 

 brick columns of fourteen inches, with solid foundations; the advantages 

 being that the chime is all exposed, and that any leak can be readily 

 detected and repaired, which cannot be done in a cylindrical or conical 

 tank. My brandy house is constructed' of brick, with brick partitions to 

 divide the risk by lire, and is of the same level with the ground. The 

 roof is made of metal, with openings covered with glass to admit the 

 sunlight and increase the temperature. In Europe a wine must be 

 excessively had not to find a ready market, and those only are distilled 

 into brandy that cannot be sold. In California our vintners, many of 

 them, are men of small means, with heavy mortgages to carry at high 

 rates of interest, ami cannot wait for the ripening of their wines, or for 

 a market alter they mature. 



Another heavy item is in the cost of the package, which, at twelve to 



