410 



false head. This consists in a few buckets of foaming and ferment- 

 ing must from an adjoining vat. Under the combined influence of 

 the congenial temperature of the fermenting house and of this 

 freshly-crushed, well-aerated mass, the newly added ferments, soon 

 take hold of the contents of the vat, and within a few hours 

 fermentation is in full swing. 



The alternative method is to allow the spongy cap to float and 

 to push it down twice a day, a process which when much wine is 

 being made entails a great expenditure of labour and of time, and 

 is open to serious objections, as the cap at times gets sour and 

 carries with it in the body of the liquid germs of diseases. 



A. modification to the method thus described is illustrated in 

 the following woodcuts. It has been used with great success by 

 Coste-Floret. Here, instead of a perforated false head, there are 

 two vertical gratings (A. D.) which separate the vat into three 

 compartments. The crushed grapes are dumped into the 

 central one, and the juice running from the mass fills the space on 



either side of the central com- 

 partment. The customary ad- 

 dition of levure or leaven having 

 been added, fermentation soon 

 sets in inside the vat. When 

 the temperature reaches 85 to 88 

 deg. Fahr. pumping is started, 

 the must being pumped from,, 

 say, the left side of the vat back 

 into the right compartment. 

 This arrangement, which meets 

 all the advantages sought for 



with the horizontal immersed 

 false head, saves the trouble of 

 removing that head after each 

 fermentation for the purpose of 

 removing the skins or marc. 



To sum up this improved 

 method of wine-making, it is 

 seen that the period of fermenta- 

 tion is made as short as possible ; 

 the temperature is not allowed 

 to rise beyond 92deg. to 93deg. 

 F. Acetic and lactic ferments 

 have less chance of tainting the 

 wine. Earthy tastes, often due 

 to prolonged maceration of the 

 marc in the wine, disappear ; the 

 colour of the wine is deeper ; 

 the process of fermentation being 

 more rapid, fewer vats will answer 

 for vintaging a given quantity of 



Grape Vat, section and plan. 



