78 Wine-making. 



BUSHBERG CATALOGUE. 



Wine- making. 



The cask into which the juice has thus been put 

 should not be completely tilled, nor the bung hole 

 closed, as long as violent fermentation lasts. 

 During that time the (carbonic acid) gas which 

 rises and tills that space, prevents any access of 

 air, and the old method of closing the bung hole 

 by a grape loaf, over which a small sand bag is 

 placed, is still preferable to any complicated 

 syphon. Care must be taken that the sand bags 

 remain clean, for if soaked by the must or by 

 wine, vinegar would form in them ; some, there- 

 fore, use a cork stopper, holding a doubly bent 

 glass or rubber pipe leading into a small glass 

 jar. half-tilled with water, through which the gas 

 escapes without admitting the outer atmosphere. 

 A funnel-shaped bowl with an air tube or chim- 

 ney in the center, covered by an inverted cup or 

 tumbler, which forces the escaping gas to pass 

 through the water in the bowl, combines the 

 same advantages and is less apt to break or get 

 out of order. The construction of this useful fer- 

 menting tool (Fig. 103) is as follows: The funnel- 

 shaped bowl (r) is pressed with its cylinder (cZ) 

 into the bung hole, over it a cup (b) is placed and 

 the bowl is filled with water (e). The forming 

 carbonic acid gas must pass through the water (e) 



Fig. 103. 



contained in the bowl, as indicated by the arrows, 

 driving the air from the vacant space in the fun- 

 nel ('?) so that no acetic (vinegar) fungi can form. 

 When the principal fermentation has ceased, or is 

 no more perceptible, the cask should be filled up 

 with similar young white wine, and then closed 

 with a tight-fitting wooden bung. 

 Mohr recommends a cork bung 

 perforated by a glass tube filled 

 with cotton, whereby the atmos- 

 pheric air would be admitted with- 

 out any germs of fungi. Babo 

 recommends an ordinary wooden 

 bung, perforated bj^ a few small 

 air holes, so arranged that an 

 india-rubber ring will close it 

 against the air, yet permit the 

 escape of any carbonic gas by the 

 elasticity of the ring. This simple 

 fermenting bung is shown in Fig. 

 104. It is hollow inside from a 

 to b, and is perforated from c to 

 d. around which the india-rubber 

 ring (' to /is firmly fastened. 



After the main or violent fermentation, the must 

 will have become clear young wine, provided 

 that fermentation has been uninterrupted and 

 complete; having become clear, in December or 

 January, it is drawn off from its sediment into 

 clean, propeily prepared wine casks. By this 

 drawing off the young wine again becomes 

 cloudy, only to become clearer in March or April 



Kiir. lot. 



following, when it is again drawn off before its 

 second fermentation. As soon as it is apparent 

 that, with the rise of temperature in May, this 

 second fermentation approaches, the bungs must 

 be opened, some wine drawn off from the full 

 casks to make room for the inevitable expansion, 

 and the sand bag or other apparatus is placed on 

 the buny holes until the termination of this second 

 fermentation, when the jeast and other impuri- 

 ties will have been precipitated and settled, and 

 the finished wine must be drawn off again into 

 clean, well-prepared casks. The proper and fre- 

 quent drauHug off is one of the most essential 

 operations in wine-making. The object thereby 

 aimed at is not merely to separate the iionnfj loine 

 from its sediment, the dregs or lees, but to bring 

 it in contact with the atmospheric air — while in 

 older wines such contact must be carefully avoided. 

 In drawing off the young wine we use a vulcan- 

 ized rubber hose, one end of which is placed in 

 the wine, so as not to touch the bottom of the 

 cask, and from the other end the air is drawn, by 

 the mouth, until the wine flows through it into 

 wooden pails or tubs below. By a mere pressure 

 of the two fingers the hose is closed and the flow 

 stopped at will; the clear wine is filled into fresh 

 casks by the aid of the wooden funnel, heretofore 

 mentioned among the necessarj^ tools. Rotary 

 pumps, specially made for wine, are now gener- 

 ally used for drawing off older wines ; but, as long- 

 as the wine is not quite and permanently clear, 

 contact with the air during the drawing-off 

 process is necessary. Permanent clearness, how- 

 ever, is often reached only after the wine has 

 passed six or more times through this process. 



This slow process of clearing or finishing the 

 wines is accelerated by fining (in the case of 

 white wines, with isinglass, gelatine; in the case 

 of red wines, with eggs, etc.), bj' filtering, by 

 aerating, by heating (Pasteurizing), and other 

 artificial methods, which require special skill and 

 apparatus, and which belong more to the manipu- 

 lations of the wine-dealer's cellar than to those of 

 the producer. 



RED WINES 



differ from white wines not merely in color, de- 

 rived from the black or dark blue grape-skins, but 

 these also contain other valuable ingredients, 

 especially more tannin, which gives to red wines 

 a peculiar character and important hygienic 

 qualities. 



The re(Z-wine grapes need not be crushed as 

 soon after picking as the white-wine grapes. 

 Many authorities recommend that their stems be 

 first removed, as these contain and impart more 

 acidity than is desirable in red wines. The grapes 

 are usually fermented from one to two weeks in 

 upright, firmly closed fermenting vats, in which 

 a perforated double or false bottom is placed, at 

 about one-foiuth the space from the top. This 

 false bottom is to prevent the rising of the husks 

 to tiie top of the liquid, as they would do in a fer- 

 menting tub without such double bottom, when 

 they would have to be pushed down into the 

 liquid several times each day, to prevent the for- 

 mation of acetic acid in those husks, and to ex- 

 tract from them all the color and other valuable 

 substances. Tlie vat is, of course, first filled with 

 the crushed grapes, then the double bottom is put 

 in, so that it will be covered layabout three inches 

 of pure juice, which may be drawn off by the 

 opening or faucet below, and poui-ed in again 

 after the double bottom is placed over the grape- 

 mash. 



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