428 



importing druggists or from cork merchants, is packed ; failing cork 

 grit, sawdust can be used for the purpose of acting as an insulating 

 material. The inner box should be tin-lined, and should have a 

 small pipe drain at the bottom to take the melted ice away. A 

 double lid completes the construction of this ice-storing receptacle. 



WHEN TO COMMENCE COOLING is a question of great moment. 

 The fermenting must should never be allowed to reach lOOdeg. F., 

 as in that case the yeast suffers such harm that it does not always 

 recover, and, in spite of all the maker's efforts, the wine may become 

 permanently injured. If in a small vat, the heat is not likely to 

 rise to danger point, but in a large vat it is advisable, if the must is 

 still rich in sugar, to commence cooling when the thermometer 

 marks Sldeg. to 32deg. C., i.e., 88deg. to 90deg. F., below that it 

 would be waste of energy, and above it might prove sailing rather 

 closely to danger point. 



WHEN TO DRAW THE WINE. The first fermentation in a wine 

 cellar is generally more protracted than the subsequent ones, for 

 reasons that have already been referred to, the appliances for wine- 

 making having not yet been en leavened by the yeast of wine 

 fermentation. After this first fermentation, however, under con- 

 ditions prevailing at vintage time in the Australian climate, the 

 march of fermentation is greatly accelerated, and in about three to 

 six days the wine is fit to draw off the vat. 



Sometimes fermentation runs wildly for two or three days and 

 then stops short. In that case there is often sugar left unfer- 

 mented in the must, and the cause as well as the remedy has been 

 indicated in this chapter. After four or five days, however, the 

 wine is pretty well ready to draw off ; this is ^ndicated by the 

 saccharometer, which sinks to zero or thereabouts ; better guides 

 still are the taste and the eye. The wine should be fairly dry to the 

 taste, i.e., should have lost most or all its sugar. It should be 

 somewhat rough to the tongue, indicating that it has extracted from 

 the pips, as well as from the skins, a sufficient amount of tannin to 

 ensure its sounder keeping and its easier clearing. To the eye it 

 should, if a red wine, be of a dark ruby or of a somewhat deep 

 colour. If a white wine, it should have as little colour as possible, 

 beyond that which maybe imparted to it by the debris of yeast cells 

 and other impurities, which, after settling to the bottom of the cask, 

 will soon leave it clear and transparent above. 



LIQTJOBOUS WINES. 



The methods already touched upon apply to white wines and 

 to red wines which are fermented dry, i.e., in which all th^ sugar is 

 allowed to be transformed into spirit and carbonic acid. 



Liquorous wines, of which Port wine, Madeira, Sauterne. and 

 Sweet Muscats are types well known in commerce, and are made 

 somewhat differently. Some of their natural sugar is preserved in 

 the wine, and fermentation is checked before it is completed. 



