449 



In the Eastern Australian States brandy is, to a very great 

 extent, made of " pricked" or "off" wine, i.e., wine rendered un- 

 marketable owing to a taint of, very often, either acetic or lactic 

 acid, or of moulds, which make it " mousy." As the acids 

 named have been produced at the expense of some of the alcohol 

 in the wine, it follows that, for brandy making, such wine is 

 impoverished of its alcohol proportionately to its degree of acidity ; 

 aiid of such wine seven to eight gallons are required to make one 

 gallon of proof brandy. 



The following table gives the maximum amount of the raw 

 material required to make one gallon of proof brandy: 



5 gallons of sound wine. 



8 gallons of sour wine. 



8 gallons of grape pomace from the fermenting vat, plus 

 four gallons of water. 



8 gallons of lees or of piquette. 

 16 gallons of wash. 

 16 gallons of pressed skins and eight gallons of water. 



COST OF PRODUCTION OF THE RAW MATERIAL. 



By " raw material," with reference to brandy making, I mean 

 sound wine especially prepared for the purpose, and also the refuse 

 of the fermenting house and of the wine cellar, which would, unless 

 utilised for that purpose, be to a great extent wasted. I will 

 assume, in order to arrive at an approximate estimate of the cost of 

 the production of white wine for the purpose of making brandy, 

 that a large stretch of the second-class land of this State, such as is 

 met with, say, in the region of the Swan, the Murray, or the 

 Ferguson and Preston rivers, and consisting of light loam overlying 

 a subsoil of gravelly, ochre-coloured, stiffish loam, or of limestone 

 formation, with abundance of fresh water at a depth of from 10 to 

 30 feet from the surface, and with a good and reliable rainfall of 28 

 to 30 inches. 



That kind of country is often under stunted jarrah or red gum 

 trees, with occasional patches of blue or flooded gums, stinkwood, 

 wattle, banksia, and sheaoak (Casuarina), or under tuart gums and 

 blackboys and banksia. Numerous small vineyards have been very 

 successfully established upon that latter kind of country, and present 

 a healthy and thriving appearance, bearing well and producing a wine 

 clean and free from the peculiar " earthy taste " sometimes notice- 

 able in wine made from vines grown on rich alluvial bottom lands. 

 In arriving at the following estimate, the high cost of labour and 

 horse feed at present ruling have been taken as a basis for working 

 out the cost. I also assume that provision has been made the 

 previous year for striking vine cuttings in a nursery, as,, in this 

 climate, rooted vines give far more satisfactory results than vine 

 cuttings when a vineyard is planted. Attention to this detail would 

 cheapen the cost of rooted vines by 2 an acre, or =200 for a 

 100-acre vineyard. 



