1/2 Notes and Gleanings. 



lie spirit ; was a ready writer ; a patron of artists ; had a wit that sparkled like 

 his wine, without bitterness. With Mrs. Longworth he lived to celebrate their 

 golden wedding ; and the choicest vintage now shipped from the cellars bears 

 the name of "Golden Wedding," in honor of that event. 



Major William P. Anderson, the present proprietor of this establishment, 

 grandson of its founder, graduated as a civil-engineer at the Troy Polytechnic 

 Institute; served during the war, — first as a private in the ranks for several 

 months, and afterwards as an officer on the staff of Major-Gens. Nelson and 

 Burnside, and assistant adjutant-general at head-quarters. Department of tlie 

 Ohio : but. now preferring the arts of peace, he seems to have inherited the rural 

 tastes and vinous predilections of his ancestor. Fine Alderneys low in his fields. 

 The poor man finds easy access to his purse by announcing himself as "a pen- 

 sioner of your grandfather." The grape and its product are his study ; and 

 cunning workmen in silver and gold have fashioned the premiums now tendered 

 by him to whatsoever man in America shall produce those " still better grapes." 

 Those constantly employed at the house number about twenty, half of whom are 

 from France, and have held their situations for twelve to fifteen years, as it is 

 found necessary to assign each workman his special duty, and avoid changes. 

 The foreman, Mr. Jules Masson, is from Burgundy ; his assistant, from Alsace. 



For the manufacture of wine, a crop of well-ripened grapes is selected and 

 purchased in the vineyard late in October or early in November, and a man 

 sent to superintend the gathering. All decayed or imperfect berries are first 

 removed from the clusters, which are then cut from the stalk, and taken in cov- 

 ered baskets to the wine-house. A lid, or rather a false head, having innumera- 

 ble holes, is fitted into the mouth of a capacious cask : the clusters are placed 

 upon it, and the grapes worked through into the cask, leaving the stems on the 

 head. Stemming and mashing completed, the tmesi may be allowed to stand 

 for some time on the skins of the grapes before pressing, provided a colored 

 wine is desired ; othenvise it is immediately pressed out, and run into large 

 fermenting casks situated in the upper or warmer cellars. The writer noticed 

 one of these casks, having a capacity of over four thousand five hundred 

 gallons. The weight of 7nust is expected to be at least eighty-five to ninety. 

 The fermentation thus begun lasts ten to thirty days, varied by the heat of the 

 weather ; the gas evolved being allowed to escape tiirough water by means of 

 a siphon, thus preventing t^ie access of air. The elTervescence having ceased, 

 and a sediment been deposited, the pure wine is racked off in the following 

 March, and conducted down into numerous casks provided for the storage of 

 still wines in the deep cellars, whose temperature ranges from 40° to 50° Fah- 

 renheit the year round. These casks have generally a capacity of three hun- 

 dred to five liundred gallons ; but a number hold fifteen hundred to two thousand 

 gallons each. 



To produce sparkling wines, the still or dry wine thus kept in store is forced 

 up again about the month of June, and run into fresh casks ; and to each of 

 these casks there is now added a measure of wine having pure rock-candy in solu- 

 tion sufficient to induce a second fermentation. It is now drawn out into bottles; 

 and these are securely corked, and are stacked in the upper cellars till about the 



