130 Notes on the Culture of the Vine, 



ed to the deficiency of saccharine matter in the grapes, or by 

 boiling sugar into a syrup, or by throwing raisins or dried 

 figs into the must; any of which admixtures should be applied 

 previous to fermentation, and will tend materially to the im- 

 provement and body of the wine. 



It will have appeared from Articles 3 and 4, that the ex- 

 pressed juice of the grape is subjected to fermentation in 

 casks (if possible, brandy pipes) well washed with brandy, a3 

 being thereby freed from impurities which must otherwise de- 

 teriorate the quality of the wine. Their size is of course im- 

 material, but they should not be of the description commonly 

 used in this colony, having their heads or tops entirely open 

 (I mean the vessels, called kuipen). 



The use of these vessels must, upon reflection, appear ex- 

 tremely detrimental to the production of good wine, even to 

 the- most prejudiced minds; and I feel satisfied, that, to the 

 operation carried on in them, is to be attributed the bad 

 quality of Cape wines in general, and so long as that system 

 is persevered in, wines of more flavor and body, or of better 

 quality, cannot be expected. 



It must be evident to every observer that when the mass of 

 expressed juice, husks, stalks, &c. is subjected to fermentation 

 in these open vessels or kuipen, that the husks, &c, during 

 the fermentation, rise to the top, and becoming exposed to 

 the atmospheric air, soon contract acidity, and almost imme- 

 diately become putrid; the fermentation of the expressed 

 juice during this time continues under this surface of putrid 

 matter, with which, by the continued ebullition of the juice, 

 every part thereof is in turn brought into contact ; hence the 

 liquor acquires a flavor which, under whatever term it may be 

 called, is, in my opinion, that which has established the cha- 

 racter so peculiar and so destructive to Cape wines. 



The liquid having thus acquired a detestable taste from 

 which it never can be properly freed, even under the most 

 judicious subsequent management, is not the only evil 

 which must result from the use of these vessels ; for, by 

 having so large a surface at once exposed to the atmospheric 

 air, all the flavor which the wine might have acquired under 

 a proper mode of treatment, is allowed to escape with the car- 

 bonic acid gas which is copiously disengaged during fermen- 

 tation, and the wine is thus left with the taste acquired from the 

 putrid matter with which it had been in contact, and, more- 

 over, is deprived of any flavor the grape might have con- 

 veyed. 



The following remark?, generally considered of minor im- 

 portance, if attended to, would perhaps materially improve 

 the quality of wines in this Colony: — 



