443 



The first _ method mentioned, which consists of charging the 

 copper with the skins and stalks, yields an impure, fiery spirit, 

 highly impregnated with fusel oil, and unless the produce of dis- 

 tillation is passed through again, it is quite unfit for the purpose of 

 fortifying wine. 



The second method only extracts one-half of the wine contained 

 in the fermented skins, and is therefore wasteful to a high degree. 

 That method consists in throwing the pressed skins into a vat ; 

 pouring water over them ; allowing them to steep in that water for 

 a few days, then drawing off the resulting liquid, and either dis- 

 tilling it straight off or storing it in casks for future use. It is easy 

 to understand, when that method is followed, the added water 

 and the wine present in the skins mix together in such a way 

 that they soon constitute a homogeneous liquid. When this is 

 drawn, a portion of that wash still remains in the skins. The addi- 

 tion of fresh water would simply further dilute that residue, and a 

 proportion of the alcohol it is sought to recover would yet be left 

 in the residue. A bulky dilute wash is thus obtained, which is 

 costly to distil, and which, being open to the invasion of such germs 

 as are responsible for acetic and for lactic fermentation, soon 

 become unsuitable for any purpose whatsoever. 



The method which was last year suggested to our still owners 

 to follow was somewhat different. The compressed cake left after 

 pressing was broken up and shovelled into a series of empty 

 barrels or vats, with their heads removed, and supplied with a tap 

 at the bottom. The skins constituting that cake were evenly 

 broken up between the fingers and spread uniformly into each cask, 

 so as to make as uniform and as solid a mass as possible, and a 

 small quantity of water, say, one quart at a time, was poured over 

 that mass, and at short and uniform intervals cf, say, five minutes, 

 from a can supplied with a rose. 



The result of this watering is that the water gradually works 

 its way downward, and as gradually displaces the wine left in 

 the pressed skins, substituting itself, to a. great extent, for that 

 wine, which is driven down before it. At the bottom of the cask 

 the vinous liquid soon begins to trickle, and is received into 

 appropriate vessels. After a time the liquid thus streaming out 

 of the vat becomes more dilute, and such liquid is collected apart 

 and used for watering a fresh vat like the first, charged with 

 fermented skins. 



This method can be used with advantage by anyone and at 

 any time. An improvement on it I now purpose to explain ; it 

 presents even greater advantages. 



By this means the manipulation of the skins are reduced ; these 

 are more thoroughly exhausted of the wine they contain, and a 

 more uniformly strong piquette results. 



The appliances required need not be costly, and can be pro- 

 vided at any fermenting shed. 



