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THE GENESEE FARMER, 



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WINE -MAKING. 



BY C. BLAKELY, OF ROXBURY, CONN. 



In the last January number of tlie Farmer may be found some important information 

 on the subject of making wine, together with some remarks of my own on the culture 

 of the vine, to which, as the subject as it has been presented, la your paper is by no 

 means exhausted, I would beg leave to append a few hints for the special benefit of 

 those of your readers who may wish to try the experiment, as many of them might 

 easily do, of making wine on a small scale. 



The manufiicture of wine is, to a very gi-eat extent, a thing of mere fancy or taste. 

 Few branches of business are more completely under the control of the operator, or 

 subject to greater modifications. There are so many ways in which wine may be adul- 

 terated, .and the facilities for making good imitations of the pure article without employ- 

 ing a single drop of grape juice are so numerous, that it is difii cult for most persons to 

 distinguish the spurious from the pure. It may be made strong or weak, and may be 

 colored, aromatized, or flavored, to suit the fancy. This constitutes an important reason 

 why it should be produced in every section of the country, by persons of reliability, and 

 to an extent commensurate with the legitimate uses to which it may be applied. And 

 why should it not be ? Why purchase an article for medicinal or sacramental uses, the 

 appropriateness of which for the purposes for which it is intended we know nothing about ? 

 Why not make for ourselves the very article we want ? I propose to notice first — 



The time of gathering the grapes. — There is an appropriate time for this. If too 

 green, they will be wanting in richness, and in that peculiar ri);e, spicy flavor, which is 

 essential to good wine. Again, when they become too ripe, so as to be shriveled, it is 

 a sign that much of the juice, and the gaseous aroma along with it, have made their 

 escape by evaporation, and that the fruit is tending to decay — a state which is unsuited 

 for making lively, delicious wine. The best time for harvesting, is when they have 

 arrived at maturity of color and size, and before there is any tendency to decay. 



To cleanse the cask. — The condition of the cask, jug, or bottle, designed for containing 

 w4ne, can not be too carefully attended to. It should be free from anything like sedi- 

 ment, or mold adhering to the interior, the condition of which may be readily known 

 by suspencling a. lighted candle by a wire within the cask. When must or acid has 

 become fixed in the cask, it is very difficult removing either of them. A little unslaked 

 lime dropped within the cask, with boiling water applied, so as to cause rapid ebulition, 

 is a good thing. Water that is freely impregnated with alkaline salt, or the lye of wood 

 ashes, is an excellent thing ; also, the fumes of sulphur are used. 



Fermentation. — Previous to fermentation, wine is called must^ or stum. That which 

 has been once dead and has been re-animated by means of extraneous additions, is called 

 stummed wine. In the January number of your paper there are two fermentations 

 spoken of, as taken from the Bevieio, previous to the usual time of bottling. This is 

 not technically correct. The second fermentation there alluded to, is but the resump- 

 tion or continuation of the first, which had been retarded or suspended by the inter- 

 vening* cold weather. The season of the year, irrespective of heat or cold, has no 

 influence on fermentation. There are three kinds of fermentation : First, the vinous, 

 producing alcohol or spirit, and giving to the liquor its peculiar stimulating and pre- 

 serving qualities ; second, the acetous, converting it into vinegar ; and third, the j^utrid, 

 destroying its vitality, and changing it into a nauseous, poisonous hquid. 



When to bottle wine. — This depends on a variety of circumstances, one of which may 

 be the legitimate offspring of another. It may be changed into vinegar in a few hours, 

 by a process well understood by manufacturers of that article, or it may be kept for 

 ages in its original, unfermented state, according to the treatment it may receive. 



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