46 ON THE ART OF MAKING WINE. 



or a little fresh fruit suspended in the cask at 

 same period, will be sufficient to communicate n 

 taste, more likely to prove excessive than defec- 

 tive. 



But the most striking defects of the common 

 proceedings are visible in the vacillation and un- 

 certainty, with which both the fermentation and 

 the subsequent processes are conducted. By using 

 the yeast of beer, a practice founded on ignorance 

 of the nature and causes of fermentation, a false 

 and bad flavour is introduced, which is often suffi- 

 cient to render the produce tainted and even 

 nauseous. By want of attention to the process it- 

 self, and the circumstances by which it is affected, 

 the artist is unable to advance or retard it, to alter 

 or amend it ; while, guided solely by rules found- 

 ed on fixed periods, inattentive to his subject or 

 jts concomitancy, and undecided respecting the fu- 

 ture character of his wine, it is npt surprising if 

 he meets with perpetual disappointment, produ- 

 cing still wine when he wished for brisk, or sweet 

 when he intended tp form dry. The same want of 

 principles prevent him from taking advantage of 

 the practices of sulphuring, racking and bottling, 

 as will be obvious to those who shall compare the 

 practices in daily use, with the more correct ones; 

 which have been laid down. 



I must now proceed to give a view of the me- 

 thods in common use, as far as they offer differen- 

 worthy of notice, confining myself to those 



