September 26, 1865. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



259 



jnice in the workinp-pan, and the united quantity should 

 sh'Rhtly exceed ten gallons. 



We !ire now arrived nt the sweetening, and licre I will inRert 

 a table of the si'eeitic Kravity of the pure juice of my Graiica 

 used for wine-nj;ildug during si:; consecutive years. 



Sncchnrometer. Sncchorometor 



1888, Esporiono 21^ Muscadines 35'' 



1869, <lo 20= do 22" 



1860, July 4tli Vinos iu blossom, cnmo to nolhiuK. 



1861, E.siH'vioue 15- Musciuliuos 17J' 



1863, do 17° do 20- 



1868, do 19- do 21^° 



1664, do 20' do 22= 



I may mention here that I never mid a drop of raw spirits to 

 my wines of anj' description. I have never had any cause to 

 regi'et not having used spirits, and I have samples by mo of all 

 the wines that I ever made to prove that the addition of spirits 

 is not necessary for their l;eeping. All the alcohol which they 

 gain ai'tilicially is from the sugar, which is always more or loss 

 necessary for I3ritish wines on account of the smaller amount 

 of sun-heat which the Grapes receive as compared with those 

 produced in foreign countries, and even there, in some parts, a 

 great deal of sugar is added to the Grapo-juice. I believe I use 

 more sugar iu my practice than what many of our best wine- 

 makers recommend. I have tried less ([uautities, and I have 

 always found that I was eventually obliged, in order to give 

 body, to add an amount of sugar more than equal to what I 

 should have used iu the first instance, for the wines would so 

 attenuate themselves in the cask that if I had not kept adding 

 dissolved loaf-sugar to keep up the gravity they would have 

 been miserably thin, or possibly acetous fermentation would 

 have set in, and then vinegar would have been the result. I 

 find, besides, that it is never satisfactory to have to apply much 

 sugar to keep up a standard of sweetness in wine after the 

 liquor has fermented and been fined off. In short, if the wines 

 have not a sufficiency of sugar added to them in the first 

 instance they cannot be sweetened properly afterwards. If, on 

 the other hand, they have been too much sweetened at first, 

 a cloudy appearance and a mawkish taste, and pricking upon 

 the palate, will be the consequences, and these evils caunot then 

 be remedied. The above causes are those which have tended 

 so much to bring our English wiues into bad repute. 



I think that I cannot do better now than give a digest of the 

 manner in which I operated last, as being my best practice up 

 to the present time. I must, however, make the preliminary 

 remark that I last year used super-honey from my bee-hives 

 for my Esperione wine, and w-ith very evident improvement, 

 and that for the future I intend to adopt it for ijU my wines 

 as an assistant sweetening in the propoi'tion of 3 lbs. to 

 every ten gallons of wine. The mode of preparation wliich I 

 adopt is to place 3 lbs. of honey and 3 lbs. of water iu a stew- 

 pan over a bright fire, gently simmer for twenty minutes, skim 

 off the scum as it rises, and allow the liquid to become cool ; 

 it is then ready to add along with the sugar to the Grape-juice. 

 I have a fine sample of honey this year for the pui-pose. and 

 a magnificent crop of Grapes. I have been obliged to securely 

 net over 700 superficial feet of the w.alls of this house to pro- 

 tect them from the sparrows, blackbirds, and bantams. 



1864.— Digest. 

 To make nine gallons of Esperione wine. Take 90 lbs. of 

 Grapes. October 27th gathered Grapes. Weight when picked 

 from the stalks 81 lbs. Roberts's saccharometer floated in pure 

 juice at 20° ; added two gallons of clean cold water to the must, 

 saccharometer then indicated 12i°. October 28th, saccharo- 

 meter 14° ; 2!)th, same as yesterday ; 30th, ditto ; .'ilst, sac- 

 charometer 12°. Pressed off juice, ran 7 J gallons, saccharometer 

 then floated at 11° ; added li gallon of water at 80° by the 

 thermometer, to the sldns and pijjs, well stirred them about iu 

 it, and pressed off, saccharometer in the washings indicated 

 3J° ; put it with the premier juice, and the uuited quantity 

 measured lOJ gallons, saccharamoter nearly 11°, allowed 2 j lbs. 

 of loaf sugar per gallon, or 28 lbs. in aU, along with the 3 lbs. of 

 prepared honey, stirred every half hour or so tUl the sugar 

 became dissolved, and the saccharometer then sUghtly exceeded 

 44°, covered over ; atmosphere G0°. November 1st, saccha- 

 rometer same as yesterday ; 2nd, audibly fennenting, saccha- 

 rometer 41.i°; 3rd, saccharometer 40°; 4th, saccharometer 37° ; 

 5th. saccharometer 34° ; 7th, saccharometer 27°. Carried 

 liquor from the working-pan in the kitchen down into the 

 cellar, to a temperature of about 55°, and filled a nine-gallon 

 cask, along with a gallon stone bottle, allowing the sm']dus to 

 remain in a spouted jug for the purpose of fiUing up during 1 



the working in the cask, whence the scum is <■]( cted into a pan 

 or large dish beneath the barrel, the latter having been placed on 

 the stand so that the bimg-hole might lean a little to one side. 

 Wbeu the colander was used to pass the must through by force 

 of hand, a gi'eater quantity than I thought advisable of the 

 pulp of the (Irapes passed along with the juice into the working- 

 pan, which is not now the case with the wine-press, so instead 

 of entering the wine at once into the ))arrel from the working- 

 pan, I used to pass it through cheese-cloth formed info the 

 shape of jelly-bags. Four or six of these were tacked on so as 

 to be suspeuded between the spokes of a short ladder, which 

 was laid upon the backs of two chairs close to the working-pan, 

 and a couple of milk-pans were placed beneath, in which the 

 liiiuor filtering from the bags was caught, and the cask was 

 filled with the strained wine as quickly as its running off 

 allowed. November 8th, saccharometer 23° at bunghole ; 11th, 

 saccharometer 17° ; 13th, saccharometer 7i° ; 14th, saccharo- 

 meter 5". Racked off the wine, sulidnirod the barrel, brought 

 up the specific gravity to 74° with dissolved loaf-sugar (because 

 I wished the wine to maintain sweetness to please the palates 

 here), and used finings. January 16th, wine attenuated again 

 to 5°. Racked, suljihured, but omitted finings, as the wine had 

 become clear. March 12th, fermentation qxiite completed, 

 saccharometer 4°. A beautiful rich red wine, with a distinct 

 bouquet, and a port wine flavour. Placed a clean square piece 

 of canvass over the bunghole, and smote the bung securely 

 down, left the vent open a week, and then firmed the peg there 

 also. I propose to keej) this wine in the wood three years. 



For a dry wine (claret) I should have allowed the above 

 liqtior to remain at 5°, as at its -first racking off, and neither 

 sulphured nor used finings imtil it had been attenuated down to 

 W° — viz., water-float, when the sweetness is exhausted. On 

 the other hand, if my object had been to secure a sweet effer- 

 vescing champagne, I would have fined off the wine as quicldy 

 as possible, after its atteniiation to 9° in the vrorking, and 

 bottled it off at a specific gi-avity of 7°, not later than the first 

 rising of the sap, iu the first quarter of JIarch following its 

 manufacture. Thtis, when champagne is the aim, and attenu- 

 ation begins to count under 9°, immediately rack off, sulphur, 

 and apply finings. To do this place one of the large pans (I 

 use a rather large sponge-bath) in front of the barrel, and draw 

 out the tasting-peg, which should be placed not quite 2 inches 

 above the tap-cork-hole, and, when the wine begins to run 

 slowly, quietly tilt the cask until thick sediment appears. 

 Lower and run off the latter from the bimghole into a pan, to 

 allow it to settle down. Never use water to rinse out casks 

 when the wine is to be returned into them. Some of the liquor 

 worked in the gallon bottle can be used for that pmpose, and 

 the remainder to take the place of the sediment cast out of the 

 barrel, so here we arrive at the utility of making the extra 

 gallon. Proceed by rinsing the sediment clear from the inside 

 of the cask, cleanse the outside with water and flannel, and re- 

 place the peg in front. Now reverse the cask on its stand, or 

 by some meays, so as to be able to gain convenient commu- 

 nication with the bunghole now on the under side. Place about 

 half an ounce of flowers of sulphur on the end of an old iron 

 spoon, set light to the sulphur with the flame of a candle, and 

 allow the fumes to pass through the bunghole into the barrel. 

 Replace the cask propierly on its stand, re-enter the wine im- 

 mediately, leaving space for rather more than a quart, for the 

 purpose of adding the flnings. These should be all ready pre- 

 pared by having three days previously immersed a quarter of an 

 ounce of isinglass in a pint of clear wine, stirring the liquid 

 occasionally. The isinglass at the end of that time will be foimd 

 to be quite dissolved ; add a pint more wine to it, and mix well, 

 then quietly pour it in at the bunghole from a spouted jug -with, 

 one hand, whilst with the other keep ,','ently stirring to half- 

 way down the barrel with a piece of lath. Make sure that the 

 cask is full, put in the bung slightly, but leave out the vent- 

 peg, and in all probability fermentation will now nearly if not 

 quite cease. As soon as it has settled run off what clear liquid 

 remains upon the sediment in the pan, enter it into the gallon 

 stone bottle, or into the cask, if it is required there, and cast 

 the residuum on to the manure-heap. — Upwards .\nd Onw,ikds. 

 (To be continued.) 



WORK FOR THE WEEK. 



KITCHEN G.\r,r)EX. 



As the summer crops ai'e removed, manui*eand dig or trench 

 the gi'ound before the autumnal rains set in ; in stiff soils this 



