142 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



October 



l^t fiittigartr, 



A Few Hints on "Wine Making. 



It has been our fortune, during a practice 

 of nearly twenty years, to serve an appren- 

 ticeship in American wine mailing, which 

 commenced at the rudiments of the art ; and 

 we well remember how careful we would be 

 to pick our grapes, to get them thoroughly 

 ripe, to keep out all dew or rain, and the 

 doleful looks we would cast upon our imper- 

 fectly ripened grapes, as we did not think it 

 possible to make good, drinkable wine from 

 them. But fortunately those days are past, 

 and we often think of them with mingled 

 pity and amusement. Thanks to the teach- 

 ings of Gall, Chaptal and Petiot, we can now 

 make good drinkable wine every year. 



But, during this practice, we found that 

 different grades require different treatment, 

 almost as varied as the grapes themselves. 

 To elucidate this we would once more briefly 

 allude to the defluition of bouquet and aroma, 

 as already explained in the " Chemistry of 

 Wine." by Mr. Friugs. 



Aroma is the flavor peculiar to the variety 

 of grape : for instance the foxy flavor so 

 very perceptible as to be disagreeable in 

 s"ome of our grapes, especially the Northern 

 Muscadine, Perkios, Hartford Prolific, and 

 even in the Concord and Catawba. 



Bouquet is developed during fermentation 

 •by the action of the alcohol upon the acids. 

 If the grape contains but little acid it can 

 not develop much bouquet, nor can it be de- 

 veloped if the must does not contain suffi- 

 cient sugar to be changed into alcohol dur- 

 ing fermentation. These simple foots we 

 must keep before our eyes, as they are the 

 most important guides in wine making. 



We have some varieties of grapes which- 

 will make so-called aromatic wines : that is, 

 the aroma of them is most pleasant when 

 fully developed, which it can only be by 

 thorough ripening of the fruit. lu this class 

 we can include the Creveling, Cynthiana> 

 Arkansas, Hermann, Norton's Virginia, and 

 perhaps Clinton. We should therefore let 

 these ripen thoroughly, if we intend to make 

 the best wine they can produce ; and for this 

 reason we think, those living in northern 

 latitudes, with shorter summers, will never 

 be able to make as good wine from them as 

 those living in latitudes where they can 

 thoroughly ripen and shrivel on the vines. 



Other varieties we have wliich contain 

 aroma in excess, and where it is desirable to 

 have it in as slight a degree as possible, and 

 to develop bouquet instead. We can best 

 attain this by gathering the fruit when not 

 so ripe, as the aroma is not so fully devel- 

 oped. Should the must not contain sugar 

 enough it must be added ; and should the 

 grape contain a surplus of acid, we can 

 ameliorate by addi:ig water. 



Among the varieties which will make the 

 best wine, if treated thus, we will name the 

 Concord, Cassady, Catawba, Cunningham, 

 Delaware, Diana, Hartford Prolific, Herbe- 

 mout, Ives, Louisiana, Maxatawney, Martha 

 Goethe, Massasoit, Wilder, Liudlcy, Aga- 

 wam, Merrimack, Salem, Rogers' Nos. 8 and 

 12, Rulander, Taylor and Telegraph. 



This may appear rather startling to some 

 of our readers, and for a long time we be- 

 lieved that it was necessary to ripen all 

 grapes thoroughly to make the best wine 

 from them. But " experience is the mother 

 of wisdom." We never made better Con- 

 cord, Catawba, and Herbemont, than in the 

 season of 1865, when the summer was some- 

 what similar to the present one, when no 

 grape ripened thoroughlj', and our Concord 

 must did not average more than 65°, Catawba 

 not over 60°, and Herbemont not over 75°. 

 By adding a gallon of water to the gallon of 

 must, and sugar enough to bring the whole 

 mixture to 80°, we made a wine which we 

 have not been able to', surpass since, nor 

 come up to it. The Herbemont was pro- 

 nounced by the best judges in the country 

 the finest American white wine they had yet 

 tasted. Our Norton's Virginia, however, 

 made that season, though a fair article, was 

 much inferior ^to the vintages of 1866 and 

 '67. Delaware made, that season, from half 

 ripe grapes, was valued at $6.00 per gallon 

 within six weeks from the time it was made. 

 It was a perfect wine then, clear and fine, 

 and with an exquisite bouquet. The Con 

 cord was without the offensive foxiness, and 

 contained acid enough to be very jjalatable 

 wine : the best we have been able to make 

 of that grape since. 



In wine making we must always remem- 

 ber, that we have wo jwfect grape as yet ; 

 that grapes will, in dilTereat seasons, yield 

 entirely different products, and that only 

 thinking, practice and experiments will teach 

 us how we can best improve it. 



In making the wine we think it host now, 

 after our experience of last season, to fer- 

 ment each variety on the husks until the 

 wine becomes perfectly clear and finished. 

 Fermentation will draw out all wine-making 

 ingredients, as acid, sugar, tannin, flavor^ 

 etc., and the husks be perfectly tasteless. 

 We shall thercf >re leave it in the ferment- 

 ing vats until the beginning of December, 

 then draw it off and press the husks. We 

 can not give the proportions, as they will 

 vary with the variety of grape we have to 

 deal with, and its inherent qualities. 



Fermentation .should be rapid and thor- 

 ough, andjlhe fermenting room be kept at 

 an even temperature of 65° to 70°. Should 

 it not be warm enough, the room should be 

 heated by a stove. Beware of cold cellars 

 for young wine ; they will retard fermenta- 

 tion, and j'on will have continued trouble. 

 Your wine should be clear, and all the sugar 

 changed to alcohol, in three months from 

 making. 



We hope we need not till our readers that 

 all their utensils, pails, vats, casks, etc., 

 should be perfectly clean and sweet. A 

 sloven has no business to be a grape grower, 

 much less a wine maker, and does not de- 

 serve success. 



We can, of course, give only general rules, 

 but we hope that they will be sufficient to 

 enable all of our readers to make their wine. 

 They need not expect that they will reach 

 the climax at once ; it will take long years 

 of patient study and experiment to produce 

 the lest wine a grape is capable of yielding. 

 We do not pretend to know all about it ; on 

 the contrary, the more we learn we see only 

 the more clearly how little we yet know. 

 But we have made some good wines in our 

 day, and do not fear any more that we will 

 make a really poor article. If these hints 

 will enable our readers to do the same, we 

 shall think ourselves richly , repaid ; and if 

 they will, now and then, send us samples of 

 iheir skill, we will try and give them our 

 opinion and advice about it. — &rape Cul- 

 lurist. 



Hamburg Grapes in Pits.— A corres- 

 pondent of the Gardener's MontMy says : — 

 " Over thirty years ago a friend of mine in 

 the nursery business raised Hamburg Grapes 

 in an old fashioned pit of the daj^, generally 

 employed for raising melons and cucumbers, 

 he used for propagation, etc. It was sixty 

 feet long, divided into compartments of about 

 ten feet square, a leaa-to and double sash. 

 He had a walk at the back about three feet, 

 so as to command the pit; along this he 

 trained his vines on rafters, horizontallj'. 

 Always had an unfailing crop for private 

 use ; gave them but little attention, and 

 pruned in fall or spring, when he had time. 



These old pits have .gone out of use, buti 

 believe me, they did much better service 

 than any modern ones I have seen. The 

 compartments were filled with the manure as 

 it came from the stable daily ; he had a sup- 

 ply of peat and mold for all purposes. Made 

 plenty of money, and did a large business ; 

 he died since I came to this c luntry, worth 

 over .£50,000. 



Surplus op Fruit. — The American says : 

 The New York market was overstocked with 

 Black-caps this season, and they were sold 

 at four to six cents a quart, which affords 

 the grower no profit. It is estimated that it 

 will cost about 10 cents per quart to raise 

 and pick them, and when the}' sell at less 

 than 13 cents nothing is made on them. 



It was supposed several years ago that the 

 great city of New York could never be over- 

 stocked with small fruits; but the experience 

 of 1869 and '70 clearly show that it can bo 

 overstocked, and that it would not be wise 

 to make manj' new plantations of small 

 fruits of any kind, to be sold in that market. 



