Dry Red Wines and their Treatment. 625 



DRY RED WINES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



By M. cVA. Barney. 

 Part I. 



Much diversity of opinion exists as to the exact time and under 

 what conditions new wine should be first racked. A great deal, 

 naturally, depends upon the climate and the composition of the must, 

 as well as the conditions of fermentation and subsequent treatment. 

 It might be advisable if we confine ourselves to the export type of 

 wine only, because it is the type of wine of which there is a large 

 production this season, and of which the treatment is of primary 

 importance to producers. 



It is too late now to discuss the most suitable varieties of grapes 

 and their relative sugar strength and values, but the most approved 

 sugar strengths are those varying between 18 degrees Beaume and 

 16 degrees. 



Theoretically, every wine intended to be dry should ferment out 

 perfectly dry in the vat, but in practice this is often not the case, 

 owing, as often as not, to the scantiness of fermenting space, as well 

 as to the over-ripeness of the grape. It is obviously a very vital 

 point with growers to obtain a dry wine under any circumstances 

 rather than a semi-sweet unsaleable product, and no care should be 

 considered too minute to obtain the desired result. 



When the casks are filled from the fermenting vat, if the wine be 

 not dry, every assistance should be given to the yeasts still contained 

 in the wine to continue their action. What is sometimes called the 

 secondary fermentation often continues for weeks, during which 

 period the wine hardly clears at all, altliough the heaviest and 

 dirtiest of the lees are dejjosited. 



These lees are largely composed of yeasts, various ferments, 

 mineral matters, pulp, particles of skin, seeds, &c. The yeasts, being- 

 living organisms, change more or less under the conditions in which 

 they are placed. The cellules, which are well nourished during the 

 fermentation in the vat, have accumulated a nourishing substance in 

 reserve of a starchy nature called by Curtel * " glycogene." 



When no sugar is left in the wine when taken oft" the skins the 

 yeasts live upon this glycogene, and produce from it carbonic acid gas 

 and alcohol, hence the increase in alcoholic strength often noticed in 

 wines containing no unfermented sugar after lying on their first lees. 

 Soon, however, the reserve nourishment is exhausted, and the yeasts 

 living on their own albuminous matters, and producing excreta, assisted 

 by numerous bacteria, frequently aftect the bouquet and flavour of 

 the wine. 



It is quite obvious that the sooner the wine is freed from the 

 organic matters contained in the first lees the better. 



'Rev. de Viticulture, vol. xvi., No. 417, p. 652. 



