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making wine that is fit to drink. I believe our grapes here are grown in as great 
perfection as in any part of Ontario, the climate being very favorable to the maturing of 
the grape. Generally the juice of our grape contains from 20 to 22 per cent. of 
saccharine matter; but this has been an exceptional year, and they have contained 25 
per cent,, which would make a wine very rich in spirit. It is a recognised principle in. 
chemistry that the saccharine part of the grape is converted by fermentation so that- 
twenty parts of sugar would give 12 per cent. of alcohol. We must allow something 
for the organic matters in wine which do not ferment, and it also loses by evaporation— 
we cannot get all the alcohol from a given amount of sugar. Generally we can make a. 
natural wine here, if we do not add any sugar, containing not more than 10 per cent,, 
which we find is not quite enough to fit it for shipping purposes. Such a wine would 
keep very well ina cellar, if not moved, but if it is to be shipped to any distance it 
will get turbid and is apt to turn sour, and the only corrective for that is to add sugar 
or spirit to it. It is not good to add spirits, because in this country we cannot obtain 
wine spirits. The wine spirit is what we call amylic alcohol, and that we cannot 
obtain here. We can buy grain spirits, but these do not assimilate with wine spirits, 
and for that reason any wine in which grain spirits have been put cannot be digested 
very well; the least quantity will inebriate, insteadeof cheering as wine ought. There- 
fore we use the sugar, which by fermentation is converted into alcohol, and by a 
chemical process converts itself into grape sugar, and of course results in the wine 
alcohol. Now, the question is, What quantity of sugar shall we put in to obtain a 
given quantity of alcohol? Well, experiment has taught us that one-quarter pound of 
sugar added to one gallon of mash will give one degree of alcohol. The sugar cannot. 
be added directly, because we would lose a great deal that would get into the skin and 
the stems, and therefore we have to dissolve it in water. ‘his raises the question of | 
how much water? If we use too much we shall weaken our wine, and therefore we 
only put just enough to dissolve it. We have found by experiment that one gallon of 
water to twelve and a half pounds of sugar is the quantity in order to have a wine 
having the same virtue and the same component parts as the natural grape contains 
by itself. This water has also a beneficial effect on the wine. Our grapes contain an 
excess of tartaric acid, although they do not contain more sugar than the grapes in the 
same latitude in France or Germany, and this excess is corrected by adding water and 
makes the wine more palatable. The next operation is the fermentation, and the 
temperature that we should maintain or place the barrel in. It is a wise plan when we 
put the solution of sugar in it to heat that small quantity of water, so that when we 
add it to the wine it will not arrest the fermentation which may have already begun. | 
The object, on the contrary, is to hasten fermentation ; the quicker the fermertation the 
better the wine. Long and slow fermentation only produces turbid wine, which is never 
palatable, whereas quick fermentation produces good wine, which is always clear. The 
temperature I should recommend in which to ferment wine is about 70°. It is very 
essential after fermentation has commenced to keep the temperature up. If you should 
put it in a place where cold air strikes, it will stop the fermentation, and that is injurious 
to the wine. It is a wise plan to cover the barrel or vessel in which the wine is made, 
because if that precaution is not taken it is covered with a kind of fungus which may 
afterwards cause the wine to turn sour, and therefore the wine must be watched from 
the beginning. Now as to the duration of the fermentation. ‘Lhis should generally last 
about eight days in our latitude, We know that the wine is fermented when we discover 
by the taste that it is not sweet any more. When putting the wine in the vessel to 
place in the cellar you must not bung it right away, because there is a slow fermentation 
going on for three months afterwards, and if the barrel is tightly bunged it may burst 
and you would lose the wine. Wine is generally made here in the month of October, and 
about December we look at it to see how it is getting along. If it is clear you may 
draw it into another barrel. You must always use clean barrels. Some people use 
spirit or beer barrels, and | may tell you that there is no liquid so subject to being 
affected and taking on a taste from the vessel in which it is put as wine. One day a 
man ordered a gallon of wine from us, and in his jug there was a musty cork. I filled 
his jug from{a barrel where the wine was perfectly good and palatable, but before he 
