THE ART OF WINE MAKING. 229 



occasioned by this indispensable purification must 

 be replaced with care, and the cask kept con- 

 stantly filled. 



Immediately above the opening is placed a 

 large vine leaf, covered with sand, which is to 

 be withdrawn whenever the cask is replenished. 

 In some countries, wine is daily added to fill the 

 cask during the whole of the first month, every 

 fourth day during the second, and every eighth 

 day after, that period. In other places (as, for 

 example, the neighbourhood of Bordeaux) they 

 commence the operation of which we have 

 spoken, at eight or ten days after the wines have 

 been placed in the cask. One month afterwards 

 they close up the bung hole of the cask. When 

 the insensible fermentation has completely ceased, 

 the whole is accomplished, and the process finish- 

 ed. By imperceptible degrees, the wine becomes 

 clear and transparent. All foreign matter con- 

 tained in the cask, and held in suspension, is pre- 

 cipitated, or deposited on the sides of the vessel. 

 A mixture of tartar, of colouring matter, and of 

 the substance vegeto-animal in part decomposed, 

 forms a thick coating, which takes in this state 

 the name of lees. The slightest causes will now 

 affect the wine, a jar, by which the cask is moved, 

 an elevation of temperature, thunder, or other 

 meteorological causes, will undoubtedly set in 

 motion the liquid mass, revive the fermentation, 

 and change the transparency of the wine, into a 

 thick, turbid condition. To obviate an inconve- 

 nience so serious, the yine is transvased at 

 different periods, and the foreign matter which 



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