WINE-MAKING IN CALIFORNIA. 317 



CHAPTER VII. 



CLARIFICATION, FILTERING AND FINING. 



If wine is sound and well made, it seldom requires any- 

 thing more but careful racking, and this is certainly preferable. 

 If, however, from some cause it will not clear of itself, it may 

 become necessary to do so artificially. We can do this by 

 two different methods, mechanically by niters, or chemically 

 and mechanically by fining. 



FILTERING. 



This acts simply mechanically, as the wine is pressed in 

 some way through a substance which acts as a retainer for the 

 impurities contained in it. Among those most commonly in 

 use are paper filters, where a strong pressure forces the wine 

 from above through the pores of blotting paper, also through 

 felt and woolen bags. The one most perfect in its action, 

 and which has at the same time the advantage of low cost, 

 automatic action, and being cleaned easily, I have seen at the 

 inventors, Mr. A. Beck, corner 6th and Mission sts., San Fran- 

 cisco. I have also seen wines which had run through it, and 

 compared them with the same wine before filtering, and can tes- 

 tify to their great improvement from the process. The inventor 

 deserves great credit for his ingenuity and skill, which has re- 

 sulted in an apparatus within the reach of every one, and 

 which ought to be in every cellar. (Fig. 37) represents the 

 apparatus in use. The wine to be filtered is contained in 

 cask A, which is elevated on a platform a few feet above the 

 filter, B. The wine runs through a faucet and hose, into the 

 bottom of the filter, which contains a number of circular 

 flannel sacks, drawn over spiral springs to keep them sus- 



