VINEYARDS AND THE ART OF MAKING WINE. 



325 



melt stone sulphur in an iron sauce-pan, 

 have ready strips of muslin twelve inches 

 long and half an inch wide, dip them in 

 the sulphur while hot, (these are called 

 matches,) double two or three of them 

 over the end of a wire, set fire to them, 

 and let them down to the bottom of the 

 cask at the bung hole, keep thern burning 

 as long as they will; repeat this as long as 

 a match will burn, and when the cask is 

 full of vapor, bung it up tight, and it is 

 fit for the reception of the wine, and will 

 keep for months, so that before the vintage 

 be ripe all the casks can be ready for use. 

 The working tub should be large enough 

 to contain all the must of the vintage, un- 

 less different colored wines are to be made, 

 in that case separate tubs will be required. 

 This tub should be placed in the cellar, on 

 a stand or strong bench, high enough for 

 the casks, at the turning, to be rolled 

 under and filled at the spigot, placed one- 

 fourth from the bottom of the tub, as per- 

 forming the turning in any other way, will 

 be troublesome as well as wasteful. 



Wax should be made in the following 

 way: — take one pound of resin and one 

 pound of bees-wax, with an ounce of pul- 

 verised Spanish brown, and melt them in 

 a saucepan over a charcoal fire, keeping 

 them stirred, and while hot the bottles are 

 to be dipped in so as to have about one- 

 fourth of an inch of glass covered, as more 

 is unnecessary. In bottling, every vintner 

 should be provided with a bottling-stool, 

 which may be seen at almost any porter- 

 cellar, and without it the business cannot be 

 well done. Across it you sit — the end 

 forms a table with a rim to keep on your 

 corks and driver ; on it is fixed a thick 

 soft piece of sole leather, on which to 

 place your bottle for driving the cork ; on 

 the table also is fixed a cork-squeezer, for 

 squeezing the cork two or three times be- 

 fore it enters the bottle, as this always 

 should be done when corks are used dry, 

 as they yield much better to the bottle, and 

 go further down. Fly press cloths are 

 made with strong coarse linen, such as is 

 used by manufacturers in baling up dry 

 goods. Each cloth is made the size of a 

 bed sheet. Linen is by far the best ma- 

 terial, as it gives out no linty fibers as cot- 

 ton or woolen will, and too much care can- 



not be taken to avoid all extraneous matter 

 coming in contact with the must, as it is apt to 

 excite and produce reactions, and cause dry- 

 ness and sometimes sourness in the wine. 



Transvasing — I do not approve of this 

 operation oftener than it can be helped, as it 

 is merely to produce flatness as well a 

 brightness in the wine, and mine is always 

 characterised by the latter and never by the 

 former quality ; and I hope it will not be 

 considered presuming when I state that I 

 never drank any wine in my life, foreign or 

 domestic, that possessed two of the richest 

 qualities in the same degree that my wines 

 have. My plan is never to transvase from 

 the time it is stopped down until the March 

 following ; for as often as wine comes in 

 contact with the air, so often does a great 

 portion of the bouquet and flavor of the fruit 

 escape. Some maj' think keeping wine so 

 long without transvasing, it would not come 

 fine in time for bottling, but I have never 

 yet had any to fail. 



In speaking of the maul for crushing the 

 fruit, 1 named beach-wood as the best, and 

 such is the fact that in countries where wine 

 is made in large quantities, and from vari- 

 ous causes large qantities become thick and 

 cloudy, and to resort to finings made from 

 isinglass or whites of eggs, as we do, would 

 be too expensive, they therefore take new 

 beach-wood and chip it up fine, dry it well 

 in the sun, and from one to two pounds is 

 put into a hogshead of wine, rummaged well 

 with a broomstick, stopped down and left to 

 settle, and it acts the same way as a more 

 expensive mode. In making wine on a 

 large scale the better way is to crush the 

 fruit between two wooden rollers, horizon- 

 tally meeting each other, turned with a crank. 



This article has been extended far more 

 than it would have been, had it been in the 

 hands of an able writer ; but as most per- 

 sons requesting it, wish for a plain detailed 

 account, at the same time, while I have en- 

 deavored to meet their views, I have thrown 

 it together in as short a space as I knew 

 how ; and all who benefit from its contents 

 are heartily welcome, for in a similar way 

 the writer has obtained the materials of 

 which he has built his small temple of 

 knowledge, which is yet so imperfect that 

 if he lives a hundred years he will always 

 fine gaps to fill up. J. Noyes. 



