ON THE ART OF MAfUNCr WINE. 3$ 



advantageous effect. Knowing that the acetous 

 process cannot take place while sugar remains un- 

 * changed in the fluid, we can regulate our con- 

 duct in the use of the artificial means of checking 

 fermentation above alluded to, since any anxiety 

 on thif head is unnecessary while the wine con- 

 tinues sweet. We can also see from the same 

 consideration* how the addition of sugar to a wine 

 whose durability is suspected, may prevent the 

 acetous process from taking place, although, when 

 this process is once established; it would be, ac- 

 cording to circumstances, either unavailing* or the 

 cause of a speedier conversion into vinegar. 



I must now describe the artificial means by 

 which fermentation may be checked or stopped; 

 in those cases where a natural termination would 

 not occur. Those most generally used, are rack- 

 ing and fining, of which the object and effects 

 must already be intelligible to those who have 

 read the preceding remarks. Turbi'd wine is in 

 an unfinished state, as well as in a precarious one, 

 and its brightness ami purity is not merely an or- 

 nament, but a property necessary to its perma- 

 nence. It is from being left in this state, that wine 

 frequently becomes pricked, this disease being the 

 first stage of the acetous fermentation^ but one 

 which may also originate in other causes already 

 explained. But although racking and fining may 

 disengage the wine from all precipitated leaven, it 



