126 'Analysis of Scientific Books. 



They are picked with great care, those which are unripe, shrivelled, 

 or rotten being rejected ; they are gathered in the uiorning, while 

 the dew is yet upon them, and it is remarked that when the wea- 

 ther happens to be foggy at the time of the vintage, the produce 

 of the fermentation is considerably increased. They are then sub- 

 jected to a rapid pressure, which is generally finished in an hour. 

 The wine obtained from this first operation is called vin d'elite, and 

 is always kept apart from the rest. After the edges of the murk 

 have been cut and turned into the middle, another pressing takes 

 place, which furnishes the vin de tuille {yinum circiimcisitum of 

 Varro) ; and the repetition of these processes gives the vin de 

 deuxieme taille, or tisanne. The liquor procured by these succes- 

 sive pressings is collected, as it flows, in small vats, from which it 

 is removed early on the following day into puncheons which have 

 been previously sulphured. In these the must undergoes a brisk 

 fermentation, and is allowed to remain till towards the end of 

 December, when it becomes bright. It is then racked and fined 

 with ismglass, and in a month or six weeks more is racked and 

 fined a second time. In the month of March it is put into bottle. 

 After it has been about six weeks in bottle it becomes brisk, and 

 towards autumn the fermentation is often so powerful as to occasion 

 a considerable loss by the bursting of the bottles, but after the 

 first year such accidents rarely happen. A sediment, however, is 

 generally formed on the lower side of the bottle, which it becomes 

 necessary to remove, especially if the wine be intended for expor- 

 tation. This is accomplished either by racking the wine into fresh 

 bottles, or, if it be already brisk, by a peculiar manipulation 

 termed degoigement, the sediment being allowed to settle in the 

 neck of the bottle, from which it is forced out on drawing the cork. 

 These operations, and the loss sustained by them and by the 

 bursting of bottles, which is seldom less than twenty per cent., 

 and olten much more, necessarily enhance the price of the wine. 

 The Sillery wines are kept in the wood from one to three years 

 before they are bottled." -Pp. ,157, 158. 



The varieties of pink Champagne are either tinged by the husk 

 of the grape, or by a colouring matter composed of elderberry juice 

 and cream of tartar. 



The finest Champagne will keep from ten to twenty years ; the 

 creaming wine of Ay has even been known to keep, and to improve 

 by keeping, for a longer period. The vaults in which it is stored 

 should be cool, and of an uniform temperature; in those of M. 

 Moet at Kpernay, which are excavated in calcareous rock to a 

 depth of about forty feet, the thermometer rarely varies a degree 

 from 54°. 



2. Of the Wines of Burgundy — Well might the Dukes of Bur- 

 gundy be designated as the Princes des bons vins, for in point of 

 richness and perfume the wines of that province are unrivalled. 



