|^~h 806 THE GENESEE FAEMEE. 



Artificial heat is sometimes employed to keep up fermentation during the winter, and 

 fit the wine for an early market ; but a temperate situation, and a gradual change from 

 a new to the vinous state, is esteemed preferable for making good wine. For the time 

 of bottling, see Methods of making Wine, hereunto appended. When the cork is driven 

 in, which should he done with the flat side of a wooden bat, the bottle should be turned 

 upon its side, that the liquor, and consequently the entire bottle, may resist the pressure, 

 otherwise it will be Hable to break. They should also remain on their sides, that the 

 cork may be kept swollen, and all communication from without prevented. Atmos- 

 pheric air should be excluded both from casks and bottles, and no cask but partially 

 filled should be allowed to retain it for any considerable length of time. The influence 

 of air, where allowed free access, will be to extract the vitality of the wine, its aroma 

 and alcohol, and eventually to induce putrid fermentation. Besides, a scum will usually 

 form over the surface in partially filled casks, which in time will be converted into a 

 bitter mold, especially around the outer edge, and you have then only to shake or move 

 the cask in order to impart a disagreeable flavor to its entire contents. 



7%c alcoholic 'properties of wine. — On this head I wish to speak, inasmuch as many 

 persons, though well informed on other subjects, entertain entirely erroneous opinions 

 in regard to this. I have before me a copy of the New York Evangelist, an ably con- 

 ducted religious journal, containing a highly commendatory notice of certain wines, 

 because they are said to be " made without alcoholic additions," Similar notices are 

 often contained in other papers ; and the inference on the part of many minds is, that 

 it is free from alcohol. This, much as it is to be desired, is an impossibility ! That 

 which we technically call wine, can be preserved at a temperature of 33 deg., for then 

 no fermentation can take place ; but not in the ordinary way ; nor can it even be made 

 without alcohol, Avhich is entirely the result, not of distillation, hut of fermentation. 

 The distillation of any liquid can not create a particle of alcohol ; it is merely the pro- 

 cess of separating it from the mass. When we can contrive a way to make wine with- 

 out the use of sugar, either of grape or cane, which enters largely into the composition 

 of almost every vegetable, and without fermentation or evolving carbonic acid ; then, 

 and not till then, may we have wine without alcohol. I can not see that pure brandy, 

 the product of wine by distillation, is seriously objectionable as a preserving ingredient ; 

 but as its purity can not generally be relied on, the use of sugar of cane, w^hich is plenty 

 and cheap, will generally aflford satisfaction. As to the per centage of alcohol necessa- 

 rily employed in the preservation of wine, there seems to be no settled rule. I give 

 below the results of several analytical experiments upon diff'erent kinds of wine, as found 

 in Brande's Chemistry, New York edition, 1821, at page 521, Seven kinds of port 

 wine analyzed, gave results differing in strength from 19.00 to 25.83 per cent, of alcohol, 

 which I suppose is equivalent in strength to about 38 to 51 per cent, of common brandy. 

 Other experiments upon wines in which brandy couJd not have been used without 

 destroying their identity, gave from 11.3 to 16.6 per cent, of alcohol, the highest figures 

 indicating the strength of about 33 per cent, of common brandy. What per centage of 

 alcohol any given quantity of sugar will yield as compared with a given quantity of 

 brandy in the same kind of wine, I am not able to say. Will not some one inform us ? 



For some other valuable hints, I would refer your readers to the April number* of the 

 Farmer, page 117. I give below three methods of making wine, as practiced in making 

 on a small scale. 



First method. — Mix equal parts of mashed grape and water together, and let the 

 whole remain a week without stirring ; a less time will do if the weather should be 

 unusually warm. At the end of that time, draw oflf the liquor and put to each gallon 

 three pounds of sugar. Let it ferment in a temperate situation. When fermented, stop 

 it up tight •, and in about six months it will be fit to bottle. 



Second method. — Put into a bottle about one-third the quantity of water that you 



