10 



somewhat decomposed state owing to rainy weather, the second method will 

 be the better of the two. The great secret is to get the wines dry soon, and 

 subsequently to fill the casks once or twice a week so as always to keep them 

 quite full. In order to do this, pure yeast, a good cooler, and the glass vessels 

 for keeping the vats full, are strongly recommended. 



4 (b) Claret Type. Past experience has shown that a good, dry, red wine 

 for table use cannot be made from Hermitage in the Paarl district. Therefore 

 Cabernet Sauvignon (about 550) and Malbec (about 450) vines were planted 

 in 1914. They gave their first crop during the 1916 vintage, when in their 

 third leaf, and thus 2J years old. The crop was 113 baskets grapes or about 

 2^ leaguers wine from the 1000 vines. This was a good yield from such young 

 vines. The Malbec yielded about 40 per cent, more heavily than the Cabernet. 

 The musts had the .following composition : 



Su^ar in degrees Total Acidity as 

 Balling. Tartaric Acid. 



Cabernet Sauvignon ... 24-0 6 -8 per mille. 



Malbec 22-2 6 -8 per mille. 



The grapes were crushed in a foulior-egrappoir, which removed the stalks. 

 The husks and the must were inoculated with pure yeast when the grapes 

 had been crushed. The floating cake of husks was pressed under the must 

 by means of a pole with two cross-sticks. This was done every couple of hours 

 ior about 10 minutes. After 3J days or about 84 hours, the wine was drawn 

 off and the husks were immediately pressed, and the press wine added to the 

 rest. The wine was then almost dry. It was stored in a stukvat and further 

 treated in the usual way. It soon got bright and developed a pleasant bouquet 

 with something of a Claret character. It has a splendid dark red colour. On 

 the 9th June, 1916, it was analysed, and gave the following results : 



,, , } Total Acid (as Volatile Acid (as 



Tartaric Acid. Acetic Acid). 



12 -40 vol. % 5 -3 per mille. -52 per mille. 



^ The vines are planted 3 ft. X 8 ft., are trellised low (two wires), and 

 pruned with long and short bearers (Guyot system), as is practised in the 

 Medoc (Bordeaux district), where they form the basis of the Clarets. The 

 results, both as regards quantity and quality, are thus far very encouraging. 

 Further experiments will be continued in this direction. So much is now 

 already certain, that these two varieties can produce quite a good, dry, red 

 table wine in the Paarl district. 



(c) Sherry Type. Experiments have in the past been made with Stein, 

 Greengrape, and Pedro Jimenez (the false Pedro). The Sherry varieties have 

 only come into bearing last season, so that nothing can thus far be said about 

 them. Of the varieties first mentioned, Stein is not to be recommended for 

 making of Sherry. Its peculiar flavour is a drawback to the matured Sherry. 

 Greengrape and Pedro Jimenez have given good results thus far, but the Sherry 

 made from Greengrape seems to reach a stage of maturation after about four 

 years, beyond which it makes no marked progress, and it even seems to fall 

 off somewhat on being further kept. 



/oAs I noticed in the ampelographic collection that the Spanish Palomino, 

 which is the basis of Sherry in Spain, is practically identical with our White 

 French, experiments will be made with this variety next vintage in the pro- 

 duction of Sherry/ I have recently tasted a Sherry made from White French, 

 which was about seven years old, and had a beautiful amontillado nose and 

 character. It is, therefore, quite likely that White French may become our 

 main variety of grape for making a Sherry. 



