THE PROCESS OF WINE-MAKING ON THE OHIO. 



BY N. LONGWORTH, CINCINNATI 



Dear Sir — The plan given by your south- 

 ern correspondent in the last number, and 

 which you appear to commend for the 

 making of a fine wine, will be read with 

 much surprise in our back-woods. If we 

 wished to destroy the fine, natural aroma 

 and flavor of our Catawba and Herbemont 

 grape, we should follow the very course he 

 recommends; and I believe a moment's 

 consideration will satisfy you we should 

 accomplish the object by mashing the 

 grapes with a " green beech maul," to take 

 from them their natural taste, and supply it 

 with the taste of the sap of the beech. To 

 place our success beyond dispute, and ef- 

 fectually destroy the muscadine flavor of 

 the grape, we would place the grapes in 

 his " fresh emptied whiskey barrel," pound 

 them with his green beech maul, and a 

 few hours, in warm weather, in the tub, 

 will enable the lovers of new whiskey to 

 detect its aroma and flavor (for years,) and 

 even imagine they are drinking a diluted 

 specimen of their favorite beverage. Here, 

 the experiment would not be a profitable 

 one, as the article of whiskey is sometimes 

 sold for 15 cents per gallon. He bottles 

 the wine as soon as it is fine, in the spring. 

 We should do the same, if we wished our 

 wine to form a sediment, and be unfit for 

 sale. After the must is pressed from the 

 grape, he exposes it for many days to the 

 atmosphere. 



We gather our grapes at full maturity; 

 carefully pick off all green, rotten, and de- 

 cayed grapes ; pass them as speedily as 

 possible through a machine, (thoroughly 

 seasoned, and all possible taste from the 

 wood extracted,) to separate the stems from 



the grapes, and mash them, without break- 

 ing the seed. Instead of placing them in 

 a towel and bowl, we place them on a 

 large clean press, in which not a nail is 

 driven, and the wood of which has been 

 fully seasoned ; and even if of beech wood, 

 should not allow a particle of the taste of 

 the wood to remain in it. Press it as 

 speedily as possible, keeping the last hard 

 pressing separate from the earlier runnings. 

 Place the must in clean casks, from which 

 no taste could be obtained from the wood, 

 or any previous brandy or wine holdings, 

 unless from liquor from the same kind of 

 grape. We immediately place the cask in 

 a cool cellar, do not fill it entirely, but as 

 soon as the fermentation commences, stop 

 the passage of the strength and aroma of 

 the grape as far as possible, by putting in 

 a tight bung, through which passes a crook- 

 ed syphon into the cask to receive the air; 

 and the opposite end of the crooked syphon 

 is placed in a vessel of water ; and the sy- 

 phon is continued until the fermentation is 

 nearly over, when the syphon is taken out 

 and a tight bung driven in, giving air by a 

 small gimlet hole two or three times a day, 

 for three or four days ; after which all air 

 is excluded till the wine is clear, when it is 

 racked, and the cask thereafter kept full 

 and tight. If we wish a superior article, 

 we do not deem it fit for bottling till four or 

 five years old. If fining were necessary, 

 and isinglass or the white of eggs, to fine 

 a pipe, cost $20, we should never think of 

 using beech chips. 



I do not pretend to say, that all our vine- 

 yard men pursue this course. Many of 

 them use brandy, whiskey, and wine casks, 



