283 AMERICAN GRAPE GROWING 



When I make white wine from Mission and Malvasia, 

 as I have had to do here, as these have a good deal of 

 color in the skins, I stem and crush the grapes, and then 

 press immediately, but very lightly. This juice is run 

 from the press into the thousand-gallon casks on the sec- 

 ond floor, and finishes its fermentation there; this is 

 generally over in less than a week. The remainder of 

 the grapes is then thrown into the fermenting vats, also 

 on the second floor, and ferments there until the mass 

 begins to cool off, being stirred and thoroughly mixed 

 about three times a day, so as to have an even tempera- 

 ture in all parts of the fluid. It has generally finished 

 its violent fermentation and become quiet in four to five 

 days; it is then pressed, and the young wine run into 

 the casks on the first floor, where it matures rapidly, and 

 is generally ready for racking in a few weeks. The true 

 red- wine grapes, such as Zinfandel, Burgundy, etc., are 

 stemmed and crushed, and all put into fermenting vats 

 in the second story. Many take the first juice from the 

 Zinfandel and make white wine from it. This is mostly 

 done to obtain deeper color in the red wine, but our vine- 

 yards yield color enough, and I think it deprives the 

 wine of its best qualities, while I have never yet seen a 

 white Zinfandel wine which I could call first class. 



The whole mass is stirred and turned several times 

 every day, and pressed as soon as the must has lost its 

 sweetness and assumed instead the bitter taste character- 

 istic of young red wines. 



The grapes should be thoroughly ripe, but not over 

 ripe. This is easily tested by crushing a few bunches, 

 pressing the juice through a cloth, and testing it with 

 the sacharometer and thermometer. The thermometer 

 should be at sixty degrees if inserted in the must. The 

 sacharometer mostly in use here is Balling's; twenty-five 

 degrees of Ballings' is about equal to one hundred of Oech- 

 sle's, or one to four. Each two degrees of Balling will 



