35 ON T&E ART OF MAKING WINE. 



easily effected. In some cases, straining may b 

 required ; but in all, the scum should be carefully 

 removed, as it is from exposure apt to acquire 

 either a musty taste, or acid property, easily com- 

 municated to the liquor. In the wine countries, 

 the solid matter is exposed to the wine press. 

 Here it would not be an object worthy of the 

 labour required^ 



The wine thus far advanced, still undergoes a 

 fermentation in the casks, more languid, yet neces- 

 sary to its completion. If this process be suffered 

 to go on indefinitely in those wines of which the 

 saccharine matter has been entirely decomposed, 

 it will proceed to the acetous stage, and vinegar 

 instead of wine will be the result ; the natural 

 tendency of fermentation being a progress from 

 the vinous to the acetous stage, which, if not 

 counteracted by circumstances in the wine itself, 

 must be prevented by artificial expedients. The 

 natural circumstances which prevent this change, 

 consist in that state of proportion bet ween the leaven 

 apd sugar, which allows part of this last to remain 

 undecomposed after the process is completed, or a 

 balance of principles so nice, as to terminate in a 

 perfect neutralization of the two elements which 

 conspired to produce it. This accuracy is per- 

 haps seldom obtained, since the palate is unable 

 to detect the last portion of sugar, masked as it is 

 by the predominant taste of the wine, on the 

 qualities of which it nevertheless produces an 



