452 



at per acre will decrease as the area under cultivation increases ; but 

 after going very carefully into the matter, I estimate that the 

 initial capital required in the case under cultivation will be within 

 Is. for each gallon, or =20 per acre ; or, for 100 acres, about <2,000, 

 with a material decrease for every additional 100 acres. 



Victorian and South Australian distillers estimate the cost of 

 distillation at If d. per gallon ; in France it is somewhat less when 

 handling large quantities of wine. It is safe to reckon it at 2d. per 

 gallon. From this we see that brandyjjosts : 



s. d. 

 Five gallons of wine, at 10d ....... 4 4 



Cost of distillation, at 2d. per gallon ... 02 



We thus see, by grouping these figures together, that One 

 gallon of pure grape brandy would cost to produce, say, 4s. 6d. ; 

 one acre of brandy grape vines would produce 80 gallons of brandy, 

 costing 4s. 6d. a gallon, equalling =18, or for 100 acres =1,800. 



UTILISATION OF EEPUSE. 



The wine from a four- ton crop to the acre, of grapes of the heavy - 

 bearing class under consideration, it is thus seen, will yield 80 

 gallons of proof brandy, but there is still left, besides this, a 

 quantity of grape spirit in the pomace or the compressed cake, 

 constituted by the skins and stalks from the fermenting vat, which 

 can easily be extracted at the following approximate cost : 



I have stated above that it is reckoned that it takes to produce 

 one gallon of proof brandy 



8 gallons of fresh grape pomace and 4 gallons of water. 

 16 gallons of wash. 

 16 gallons of compressed cake and 8 gallons of water. 



8 gallons of lees or piquette. 



One ton of grapes will yield about 1 30 gallons of grape juice 

 (about l,6001bs.), leaving about 6001bs. of stalks and of pressed 

 skins. 6001bs. of fresh grape pomace represents, roughly speaking, 

 60 gallons, which, after fermentation, would yield, theoretically, 

 seven and a-half gallons of proof brandy, but, after allowing for 

 the elimination of the undesirable alcohols and fusel oil, would 

 practically yield three to four gallons of pure proof brandy, or at 

 the rate of about 15 gallons of brandy for one ton of fresh grape 

 pomace, the produce of a four-ton crop of one acre of grapes. Thus 

 a four-ton crop of grapes would yield : 



400 gallons of sound wine, producing 80 gallons of brandy. 

 One ton, or over, fresh pomace ... 15 



T ~* 



Lees 



Total amount of brandy from 



four tons of grapes ... 97 gallons of brandy. 



