518 CALIFORXTA FRUIT SOCIETIES. 



and stems are allowed to remain with the juice, which ahsorbs 

 their tannin and coloring matter. In the process of fermen- 

 tation the solid matter rises to the top, and when fermentation 

 has sufficiently proceeded, the wine is drawn off from the 

 bottom into casks. White wine is made from the juice as it 

 comes from the press, with all solid matter eliminated. It is 

 of an amber color, varying somewhat according to the variety 

 of grape used and the details of treatment. The wine in the 

 casks must be kept at a substantially uniform temperature, 

 requiring in cold countries deep and expensive cellars; in 

 California substantial brick or stone buildings, partly below 

 ground, are usually found satisfactory, although cellars are 

 built in some places. 



It will be seen, therefore, that to make good wine there is 

 required, in addition to the vineyards, considerable capital to 

 be invested in buildings, or cellars, power, and cooperage. 

 When the wine is in the casks it requires constant attention 

 as the fermentation proceeds; it must be "racked off" fre- 

 quently into clean casks, and the sediment cleaned out; 

 evaporation goes on constantly through the casks, which must 

 be kept filled, as any considerable amount of air in the casks 

 will spoil the wine. The attention must be constant for two 

 or three years, when, if desired, the wine can be bottled. Care 

 and cleanliness are essential in every step. 



The celebrated wines of the world are made from old vine- 

 yards from which the rank exuberance of the virgin soil has 

 been long since eliminated, and whose owners have learned, 

 by the experience of centuries, the most approved methods of 

 fertilization and treatment, and who are able, by the cheap 

 labor of women and children, to handle the grapes with 

 extreme delicacy, and who treat the wine in the cellars in the 

 light of traditions coming down through many generations. 



It is not possible, in a new country where labor is dear and 

 unskilled, and whose teeming soil imparts to the gra[)e and 

 through it to the wine, the varying flavors of its rankness, to 

 successfully compete with the gre.it wines of the world. Tliese 

 great wines will be produced in California in future years, but 

 not now. Such wines, however, cut little figure; they repre- 



