40 ON THE ART OF MAKING WINE. 



will not separate that which is held in sohitioft, 

 and of which the tendency is equally to destroy 

 the wine at some distant period. For this pur- 

 pose, chemical means are required, and the pro- 

 cess in common use, is known by the name of 

 sulphuring. Many unnecessary and complicated 

 methods are resorted to for this, end; the most 

 simple is equally effectual, and consists in filling 

 the empty cask with the vapour of sulphur, from 

 burning matches placed in the bung- hole. The 

 wine is then introduced into the cask, and if this 

 first operation is found insufficient, it may be re- 

 peated as often as is necessary. When the leaveu 

 is so abundant, that a very large quantity of sul- 

 phureous acid is required, as in many of the wines 

 of Bourd^aux, a portion of wine, impregnated with 

 the gas, by a process similar to that of the silk- 

 bleachers, is used for mixing with the wine in the 

 cask. The sulphite of potash, offers itself as a 

 convenient substitute for this operation ; and in the 

 quantity of a drachm or two,- it is sufficient in 

 general for a large cask of liquor. Other chemi- 

 cal agents, capable of accomplishing this end, 

 might be enumerated j but the operation of the 

 whole is similar, and consists in precipitating, and 

 rendering insoluble the leaven which was contain- 

 ed in the wine. It is obvious, that this process 

 must be followed by that of racking and fining. 

 The substances used for fining, are most common- 

 ly isinglass, or the white of eggs, and the mode of 



