Wine-maJiing. 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Wine-making. 75 



most generally in use being the Oechsle, showing 

 the degrees of sugar-percentage (from 50° to 

 130°). Dividing the degrees shown on this scale 

 liy 5 we oht;iin approximately the percentage of 

 sugar. For instance. 80° Oechsle shows -f;z=16 

 ])er cent, sugar (more exactly. 16.3 per cent.) ; but 

 as the instrument will not sink as deeply in cold 

 as in warm must, a thermometer has to be used 

 in connection or the must has to be brought to 

 the indicated temperature. With the must-scales 

 <'orrection tables are furnished for the respective 

 difference in temperature. The following short 

 table may be useful : 



TABLE FOR C0NVP:KTING, BY L. WEIGERT. 



The alcholic strength of wines can not be 

 measured by any of the so-called wine-scales; 

 these show the specitic gravity, but never the al- 

 coholic strength. A small distilling apparatus, 

 Alnmhic Salb^ron. would be required for this pur- 

 pose. (Instructions in its use accompany this in- 

 strument.) The wine-maker may, however, 

 know in advance, from the sugar percentage of 

 his must, how many per cent, of alcohol his wine 

 will have, after complete fermentation, calcu- 

 lating 1 per cent, of alcohol for every 2 per cent. 

 of sugar, measured by Oechsle'ti well-known must- 

 scale. For a correct examination of the must, it 

 should be clear (filtered, by pressing it through 

 cloth first, then through filtering-paper), then 

 pour the clear must slowly in the testing glass; 

 Increase or diminish its temperature to about 

 05° F. (14° R. or 17° C.) by dipping this glass in 

 w'arm or cold water for a few minutes; dry the 

 very breakable must-scale with care before and 

 after using it. Tables showing the percentage of 

 sugar for the various degrees of Oechsle's scale 

 may be obtained with the instrument. 



Next in importance it is to know the acidity of 

 the must, — for which there exist also simple in- 

 struments whose use (with "Lackmus") is ex- 

 plained where such chemical apparatus are sold. 

 Some wine-growers use now Twichell's acidom- 

 eter, a safe and practical instrument for this pur- 

 pose. 



Grapes which have not ripened well — owing to 

 unfavorable seasons. — contain less sugar and more 

 acidity than necessary for the production of good 

 wine. In such years the producer is forced to 

 improve the musi by aiding nature, increasing its 



sweetness and diminishing its acidity on scientific 

 I rinciples. never permitting any foreign, artificial 

 or deleterious substances to be brought into the 

 wine. Even the addition of pure chalk (carbonate 

 of lime) above one per cent., which is much prac- 

 ticed in P"'rance, to reduce the acidity, is justly 

 condemned and in some states prohibited by law. 

 Wines are generally classified (according to 

 their saccharine substances) as follows: 



(1) Dry Wines, in which all the grape sugar 

 has been absorbed or transmuted by fer- 

 mentation. 



(2) Sweet Wines. whi(;h still contain a con- 

 siderable quantity of sugar. 



The former might be called the Wines of the 

 North; the latter, the Wines of the South. The 

 northern wines contain more acidity, and are 

 consequently of a richer perfume, bouquet; the 

 southern wines lack acidity; the spirituous ele- 

 ment, sweetness, is predominating ; they generally 

 have no bouquet, and even the strong muscadine 

 flavor of some southern grapes disappears in a 

 few years. 



With regard to color, wines are classified as 

 White and Red wines, though there are many 

 shades between the two extremes, from the pale 

 greenish-yellow of the Kellj^ Island Catawba to 

 the deep dark red of our Norton's Virginia. The 

 intermediate shades are generally not as well 

 liked. Sometimes wines are also classified as 

 Still and Sparkling wines, a merely artificial 

 classification, as the sparkling is simply the result 

 of a peculiar mode of manipulation (by ferment- 

 ing in closed bottles, so as to retain and hold the 

 carbonic acid gas) — a manipulation too compli- 

 cated to be here described, or to be of any 

 practical use to most wine-growers. 



We shall now endeavor to pi'oceed to the modus 

 operandi of the grape-grower as a producer of 

 still wines. 



II. — Gathering the Grapes — Mashing and Pressing. 



Some are impatient to gather their grapes for 

 wine-making as soon as they color, others delay 

 until they are over-ripe. Both are wrong. Not 

 until the grapes have reached their full sweet- 

 ness, the berries separate easily from the stem, 

 the stems have lost their freshness and have be- 

 come harder, dryer, brown or woody, are they 

 ripe; but when they have reached that state of 

 maturity gathering should not be delayed. It is 

 impossible to describe or determine with exact- 

 ness the point of full maturity ; some varieties, 

 especiall.y those deficient in acidity, will reach it 

 sooner than others, and in bad seasons grapes 

 will not reach a perfect degree of maturity. In 

 such seasons it would be even more useless than 

 in favoi'able yenrs to wait for an improvement bj^ 

 '• after-ripening," as, aside from the danger of 

 their entirely spoiling by late rains and frost, the 

 loss in quantity would be far greater than the 

 gain in quality. Grape-giowers cannot afford to 

 risk a large portion of their crop for a little better 

 quality, especially as long as the latter is not 

 sutKciently appreciated and paid for in this coun- 

 try. The dangers of loss are, of course, greater 

 in the uorthei'n than in the more southern States, 

 and in some localities the fall season is so con- 

 stantly dry and warm that the above rule is 

 thereby modified; moreover, some varieties im- 

 prove more than others by getting slightly over- 

 ripe, and are far better adapted for late gathering. 



