400 Journal of Agriculture. [8 July, 1908. 



benefit by the cold of the winter. This is the more impoitant as last vintage 

 was generally carried out under defective if not disastrous conditions. For 

 tnis reason many new wines still want watching and will require all the 

 winter cold to enable them to withstand the heat of next summer. 



The action of cold upon new wines is of such importance that every 

 ivine tvhich does not get cJiilled when nc7k\ suffers continuously and often 

 for many years. This is especially so after wines have been lx)ttled. Re- 

 frigeration of wine is the more useful when it follows soon after the first 

 fermentation, when it is prolonged, and when the degree of cold approaches 

 2^2^^ Fahr. The cold acts not only in freeing the wine from an excess of 

 tartar but in depositing along with it, oxydised tannins, albumenoids, 

 various ferrous, and ferric combinations as well as manv other which are 

 in a state of pseudo solution. It is these substances, of which the equili- 

 brium of solution is the more unstable as the temperature is lowered, which 

 destroy the limpidity of the liquid, and Avhich give a dirty, stale and flat 

 taste to the wine fermenting its proj^er appreciation. But in addition to 

 the insoluble matters easily distinguished bv the taster there are also 

 noxious microbes or microscopic germs which are the primary cause of all 

 diseases of wine. Thev are also affected by cold when it is sufficient as 

 thev are put into a state of inaction and while in this inert condition are 

 precipitated with the o'.her substances above mentioned into the lees. This 

 fact is so well known in practice that rackings always take place before 

 the winter is O'ver, liecause if there were further delay these microbes 

 rendered again active by the warmth of the spring would ri.se from the 

 lees and reinfest the wine and deteriorate it more or less. This action can 

 onlv be complete when the wine before racking has been subjected to the 

 action of progressive cold, sufficient in degree, and fairly ])rol()nged. Now 

 in ordinary storage of new wine the question is whether these conditions are 

 fulfilled. 



[n the Gironde, which has a very old reputation for the successful 

 handling of wine, hogsheads are traditional. If the custom is old and 

 firmly rooted it is certainly because this type of cask has numerous advan- 

 tages. No doubt from its size and shape the hogshead is easily handled. 

 I: is strong enough not to be easily broken and yet the thickness of the 

 wood is of the right measure to moderate the evaporation through its pores. 

 It is also averred that this thickness is exactly right to limit the diffusion 

 of air to the interior by the same pores. But what has been until now 

 neglected is that its volume allows complete access of cold to enable this 

 latter, in an average year, to cause complete clarification in cask. We 

 must remember that this depositing of the lees, &c., can only take place 

 if the hogshead is sufficiently exposed to the cold so that it reaches the wine 

 it.self. Formerly there was no need to pay much attention to this point. 

 Old brokers say that no purchases were made until after spring racking 

 or at any rate that until then the wine was not moved. To-day this is 

 not the same, as growers take more heed of the dangeis of heat than of 

 the benefit of cold. That is why, at our suggestion, many cellars for new 

 wine are now fitted with double doors, one in thick close fitting wood 

 and the other in trellis work iron. When cold is considered useful the 

 trellis work doors only are closed. In the country w^e have even advised 

 stacking hogsheads in the open air and the same has been even carried 

 out in courtyards, &:c., in towns. It is to be supposed that the system 

 is successful as all who trv it continue it every year. 



This system is of course specially useful for wines for sale when 

 voung. No svstem is more economical, better adapted, and more efficacious 



