TJic Country Gcntlcivoman. 



meliorated. If it should prove too sweet, 

 this first operation of decanting is not per- 

 formed until the fermentation in the first cask 

 has been rendered more vigorous, which is 

 done by stirring up the lees, or rolling the 

 pipe ; and by this the sweetness is overcome, 

 and the wine strengthened and improved. 

 To ensure the fineness of this wine, which is 

 one of its essential properties, and to render 

 it at the same time durable, it is, at the end 

 of six weeks, decanted a second time into a 

 fresh pipe, and once more fined with half the 

 quantity of isinglass. It is then completed, 

 and is put into bottles in March ; clear, dry 

 Aveather being also chosen for this pur- 

 pose." 



It should be added, on the testimony of 

 Dr Shannon, that the French employ a vault, 

 as well as a wine cellar ; and, " as the vaults 

 are cool in the summer and warm in the 

 whiter, as soon as it begins to be hot, the 

 wines must be carried down, whether they be 

 in pipes or bottles, into the vault ; and when 

 it begins to be cold, they must be carried up 

 into the cellar." 



We are now arrived at the point where the 

 directions for the manufacture of our factitious 

 champagne must be compared with that of 

 the genuine foreign wine. But we earnestly 

 wish to impress upon the reader's attention, 

 the self-evident facts that a much better 

 imitation of champagne can be effected by 

 substitution of green, unripe grapes^ for crude 

 gooseberries; and that such grapes can be 

 procured anywhere, if people will merely be 

 at the trouble to plant a vine against every 

 vacant wall or fence. A wall 3 feet high may 

 be covered with bunches of unripe fruit, as 

 Mr Hoare has clearly proved ; and if the 

 grapes be taken, just at the period when the 

 process of "stoning" (that is, of developing 

 their seeds) commences, the tree may be 

 safely permitted to carry every cluster which 

 it shews ; for it is by the maturation of the 

 seed that a tree becomes distressed, and not 

 by the number of crude berries which are left 

 on it, till they appear to be at a stand-still, a 

 period of torpidity that indicates the com- 

 mencement of the seeding process. 



Let grapes be grown everywhere in suffi- 



cient abundance, and no one will require any 

 other fruit for wine, unless there be a desire 

 to retain a certain flavour, as that of rasp- 

 berry, or of the peel of the orange and 

 lemon. 



The quantities of materials referred to by 

 Dr M'Culloch for the preparation of a ten- 

 gallon cask of green gooseberry wine, are the 

 following : — 



Of cold water, 4 gallons. 



Of green gooseberries, 40 lb.. 



Of loaf sugar (not moist sugar, by any 

 means), 30 lb.; 

 and if these fail to procure ten and half- 

 gallons of niusi^ a further addition of water 

 should be poured upon the husks of the 

 pressed berries, which, when strained, will 

 make up the deficiency. 



The heat of the apartment wherein the 

 fermentation is to be conducted, is stated to 

 be fifty-five degrees, varying to sixty 

 degrees. 



The reader should now be at no loss to 

 apply, practically, the rules observed by the 

 French manufacturers, detailed above. But 

 we shall now refer to Mr Roberts, who, 

 though he accords closely with the directions 

 which we find in the work of M'Culloch, at 

 pp. 235, 240, is more definite and precise ; he 

 also has taken advantage of improved science, 

 and places his readers in a situation to arrive 

 at more certain results. Our limited space 

 will, however, constrain us to abbreviate in 

 a degree. 



Mr Roberts's process is calculated to make 

 15 gallons of gooseberry champagne ; it is 

 founded upon the annexed leading facts. 



1. A gallon of green berries, imperial 

 measure, when heaped, weighs 10 lb. ; and 

 yields, to pressure, little more than one-third, 

 of juice. 



2. This expressed juice, strained through 

 a sieve, is of a gravity when compared with 

 water, as 103 is to 1000, calculated by the 

 decimal process ; or by the saccharometer of 

 36, or thereabout. 



3. It is to be diluted with an equal measure 

 of pure water, the gravity will then be reduced 

 to about 1 8. Now, as i lb. of sugar, when dis- 

 solved in a gallon of water, is found to 



