284 THE MANUFACTURE OF WINE. 



passed their verdict on it. The surest proof I can give of its 

 excellence is that I have sold it to wine merchants for fifty- 

 guineas a hogshead ; and one wine merchant, to whom 1 sold 

 five hundred pounds' worth at one time, assured me he sold 

 some of the best of it from 7s. Od. to 10s. 6d. per bottle. 



" After many years' experience, the best method I found of 

 making and managing it was tliis : I let the grapes hang till 

 they got all the maturity the season would give them. Then 

 they were carefully cut oif with scissors and brought home to the 

 vine barn in small quantities, to prevent their heating or pressing 

 one another ; then they were all i)icked off the stalks, and all the 

 moldy or green ones were discarded before they were put upon 

 the press, where they were all pressed in a few hours after they 

 were gathered; much would run from them before the press 

 squeezed them, from their own weight one upon another. This 

 running was as clear as water and sweet as syrup, and all this 

 of the first pressing, and part of the second, continued white. The 

 other pressings grew reddish, and were not mixed with the best. 

 As fast as the wine ran from the press into a large receiver, it 

 was put into hogsheads and closely bunged up. In a few hours 

 one could hear the fermentation commence, which would soon 

 burst the casks if not guarded against by hooping them strongly 

 with iron and securing them in strong wooden frames and the 

 heads with wedges. In the height of the fermentation I have 

 frequently seen the wine oozing through the pores of the 

 staves. 



" These hogsheads were left all the depth of winter in the 

 cool barn to reap the benefits of the frosts. When the fermen- 

 tation was over, which was easily discovered by the cessation 

 of noise and oozing — but, to be more certain, by pegging the 

 cask — when it would be quite clear, then it was racked off into 

 clean hogsheads and carried to the vaults, before any warmth 

 of weather could raise a second fermentation. In March the 

 hogsheads were examined. If they were not quite fine, they 

 were fined down with common fish glue, in the usual manner; 

 those that were fine of themselves were not fined down, and all 

 were bottled about the end of March, and in about six weeks 



