and on the Making of Wine. 129 



together and subjected to the pressure of a lever or common 

 screw; the liquid thus expressed being mixed with the juice 

 first obtained by mere treading ; the whole of this liquid 

 is allowed to pass from the vessel in which the grapes are 

 pressed into another, through a basket or sieve, in such man- 

 ner as to prevent any husks, seeds, or stalks, from escaping 

 and remaining in the liquid about to undergo the vinous 

 fermentation. 



4. The liquor obtained in the foregoing manner is 

 placed in vessels with only the bung-hole open, in order 

 therein to undergo the required fermentation ; the casks 

 being kept constantly filled. When the fermentation ceases, 

 the wine is racked off into other casks, wherein the second 

 fermentation is carried on. 



It is in my opinion desirable, that the casks in which the 

 fermentation is to be carried on, should be previously well 

 washed with French brandy; and that the casks into which 

 such ferhiented liquor is racked off, be not only well washed 

 with French brandy, but should contain a small quantity 

 when the new wine is poured in. 



The system pursued at Maderia, as described in the fore- 

 going articles, dilfers very materially from the practice in 

 this colony. It is and must be admitted that the grapes here 

 are not inferior to those of Madeira, neither are they wanting 

 in saccharine matter and flavor, the two essential requisites 

 for the production of good wine. The evil must, therefore, 

 be in the subsequent treatment of the juice, and undoubted- 

 ly arises only from the injudicious manner in which the 

 fermentation is conducted, comprised in the following : 



No regard is ever paid to the seasons, whether they prove 

 dry or unusually wet ; and thus whether the grapes contain 

 the required quantity of saccharine matter or not ; nor is art 

 made to supply the defects occasioned by a wet season, the 

 necessity of which I view as more important, generally, to the 

 wines of this colony than those of Madeira, from the circum- 

 stance of at least two-thirds of the vineyards of this colony 

 being situated in such low marshy lands, or in situations 

 subjected to such continued dampness, that the effects of 

 superabundant moisture (although the seasons may not, in 

 reality, have been unusually wet), are thereby generally and 

 annually felt ; and the results are wines of very inferior 

 qualities, without any effort being ever made to remedy the 

 defects occasioned by such superabundant moisture, and con- 

 sequent comparatively aqueous state of the gra; 



The remedies are extremely simple, and consist either in 

 boiling down a quantity of the newly expressed juice into 

 a syrup, and distributing this syrup in quantities proportion- 



