66 CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



It is difficult to fine new wines, so as to keep them per- 

 fectly bright after being bottled, for even a few months. The 

 "insensible" or imperceptible fermentation constantly going' 

 on in wines, will deposit more or less sediment in the bottles 

 after all the care that can be bestowed in fining. This is the 

 case with all wines, the heavy more than the light. The 

 latter, such as Hock and Catawba, deposit less sediment than 

 Madeira or sherry, of the same age. All have to be decanted 

 carefully, or drawn off with a syphon, after standing the 

 bottle on the end, for a day or two. The author has tried 

 some of the finest varieties of each kind, and finds invariably 

 this result. He has now a bottle of Catawba wine, from the 

 vineyard of the late Jacob Resor ; vintage of 1837, which, 

 though well fined at first, and quite sound now, is turbid 

 when shaken, and will have to be drawn off with a syphon. 

 His own wine, and that of others, only bottled a year ago, i? 

 in the same state. Frequent racJcings might in some measure 

 overcome this difficulty, was it not feared that the exposure 

 to the air, would make the wine too acid. The American 

 palate rejects anything like harshness in wines ; strength and 

 astringency it can stand, but not acidity. 



Redding and other writers, have many recipes for fining 

 European wines, to which the reader is referred. The follow- 

 ing extract is from the valuable work on grape culture and 

 wine-making, by the late John James Dufour, of Vevay, 

 Ind. ; published in Cincinnati, 1826. It is given in prefer- 

 ence to others, because it is a western production, and treats 

 of American wines. Mr. Dufour, was an intelligent and 

 practical vine-dresser, one of the pioneers of this enterprise in 

 the United States, and one of the first who brought it to a 

 successful issue in the Ohio Valley. He settled, with other 

 emigrants from Switzerland, at Vevay, in 1805, and cultivated 

 the vine for many years. Tliis was before the Catawba grape 

 was brought into notice. The Cape grape, planted in bottom 

 lands (which was an error), did not pay well, and the wine 



