AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE. 185 



wooden mallet in smaH vats, are abandoned to nature for 

 the process of fermentation. As soon as all fermentation 

 subsides, the wine is drawn off into casks, and is again 

 racked off into other casks in the spring and autumn of 

 the following- year, or allowed to remain undisturbed ac- 

 cording to the circumstances and diligence of the grower. 

 The wine-merchant generally makes his purchases after 

 the spring racking, when the quality can be ascertained, 

 and undertakes the further management. The light 

 wines may be drunk in the second year ; the heavier sorts 

 require from three to five years to ripen. During this time 

 the wine is kept in casks holding one or two pipes, as the 

 quantity best suited to the convenience of the cellarman, 

 and to bring the liquor to maturity. The immense tuns 

 that were formerly in use have gone quite out of fashion . 

 Once in every year, at least, the wine must be racked off 

 as long as it shows signs of fermentation at the close of 

 the spring, and before these symptoms cease it is not fit 

 to bottle. There is great similarity in all the light wines 

 made on the Moselle and en the Rhine below Bingen. 

 The wines of Caub and Lorch are distinguished amongst 

 them by a very delicate aroma, but possess too little body 

 to bear exportation. In the hot summer of that part of 

 the Rhine they afford a very pleasing beverage when they 

 can be had pure. At Bingen the direction of the bed of 

 the Rhine is suddenly changed from a course lying x^T. 

 and S. to one bearing E. and W. In consequence of 

 this change the whole of the right bank, stretching as far 

 as the Maine, has a southern aspect. This bank is lined 

 by the Taunus range, which at Riidesheim advances with 

 a rocky mass to the rivers bank, but whose heights gra- 

 dually recede, forming an acute angle with the river to 



