150 
“Burgundy” and other districts they commouly omit it, and throw stem and 
all into the vat; if, however, the season has been bad, and the stems remain 
unripe, they are of necessity excluded in whole or in part, lest they do more 
harm than good. The chief reason for putting in the stems is to correct the 
disease called “teitter,” for which the turrin acid, &c., of the stem is thought to 
be an antidote. Fortunately we know comparatively little, as yet, of any wine dis- 
ease, except acidity, but still it will remain for us to decide upon experience which 
of the two methods it is best to adopt. Probably we shall arrive at the same diver- 
sity of practice as is witnessed here. Stemming is usually done by rubbing the 
fruit upon a grating of iron rods, but the better way decidedly is a grating of wood. 
It is made of bars two-thirds of an inch square, carved into each other where 
they cross so as to bring them down to an even face, leaving openings or meshes 
two-thirds of an inch square. ‘This is established like a table with four legs, 
with a rim around it about ten inches high, and a proper receptacle beneath to 
receive and carry off the stemmed fruit as it falls through and the juice which 
escapes. ‘I'he table is four feet square and four feet high. About three bushels of 
grapes are put on to the grating, which four men with bare arms soon rub through, 
leaving the stems behind, which are then thrown into a small circular press like 
our hand cider presses, which extracts the juice of the few grains remaining on 
them. In this way four men can stem enough to make fifty barrels of wine per 
day. For one who makes but a small quantity, adeep tub and a three-pronged 
stick will do very well. 
CRUSHING. © . 
This is next to be done, by trampling the grape with the naked foot. It is 
said to be a better way than to use a large mill, for the reason the mill will 
crush the seed; but the seeds are not easily crushed, and a properly made grape 
mill need not bruise them in the least. At a well managed wine house, that of 
Messrs. Averons Brothers, in “ Paulliac,” they put the grapes to ferment with 
no further crushing than what is given them in the process of stemming, which 
experience has satisfied those gentlemen i is all that is needed. 
Treading out grapes witb bare feet is well enough if the feet first be made 
clean, but “probably no American will ever adopt fhe plan of crushing with 
naked feet, either clean or unclean, but will either rely en the crushing given in 
the stemming process, or use a mill, or a bucket and tripod. 
FERMENTATION. 
The crushed mass, with or without the stems, is next thrown into vats and 
allowed to ferment. The vats are large casks, generally without bulge, the 
largest at the bottom, and open at the top. In some of the large houses they 
are covered with loose boards; in others the boards are jointed and made her- 
metically close by plastering with cement or clay ; in others there is merely a 
floating mass of stems; and in others there is no covering at all except the seum 
of stems, skins, seeds, &c., which rise to the surface. 
After the fermentation has ceased and the wine becomes clear, it is drawn 
off and put away in close casks, which in France are almost uniformly of the 
size called‘ barrique,” holding about fifty gallons. In Burgundy these are 
kept above ground and in the light until spring, and then put into cellars, 
while in the Bordeaux country they remain in the light in storehouses above 
ground until one or two years old, and then removed to dark rooms on the same 
level. A careful way of making red wine out of grapes not fully ripened is to 
allow it’to remain in the vats for a sufficiently long time after fermentation to 
let the greenness held in suspense settle to the bottom. 
At“ La Tour,” in the vintage of 1866, they allowed the wine to remain in 
the vat a whole month, though the fermentation was probably complete in half 
