252 MANUAL OF AMERICAN GRAPE-GROWING 



Wine-making. 



There are four distinct stages in the making of wine after 

 the grapes are grown. The first is the harvesting of the grapes 

 when they have reached the proper stage of maturity, which is 

 known as "wine-making ripeness." This stage of ripeness is 

 determined by means of a must-scale or saccharometer. The 

 wine-maker squeezes the juice from a number of bunches of 

 grapes into a receptacle into which he drops the must-scale, 

 whereupon the sugar-content of the juice is indicated on the 

 scale, determining whether the proper stage of ripeness has 

 been reached. Suitable varieties of grapes having been grown, 

 it is necessary that they be permitted to hang on the vine until 

 the proper degree of ripeness is developed, after which they 

 are delivered at the winery as free as possible from injury or 

 decay. 



The second stage is the preparation of the grapes for fermen- 

 tation. The grapes are weighed on arriving at the winery and 

 are then conveyed either by hand or more often by a mechanical 

 conveyor to the hopper or crusher. The ancient method of 

 crushing, which still prevails in some parts of Europe, was to 

 tramp the grapes with bare feet or wooden shoes. Tramping 

 has been superseded by mechanical crushers which break the 

 skin but do not crush the seeds. The best mechanical crushers 

 consist of two-grooved revolving cylinders. As the grapes pass 

 through the crusher, they fall into the stemmer, a machine 

 which tears off the stems, discharging them at one end, while 

 the seeds, skins, pulp and juice pass through the bottom to 

 the presses usually on the floor below. There are several types 

 of wine-presses, all of which, however, are modifications of 

 screw, hydraulic or knuckle-joint power. In large wineries, the 

 hydraulic press has almost driven out the other two forms of 

 power and when great quantities of grapes must be handled 

 a number of hydraulic presses are usually in operation. The 



