AND WIXE MAKING. 241 



ripe-rob is legarded as injurious, for it diminishes color 

 and tannin. All black grapes stricken with ripe-rot 

 must be carefully removed as they are picked. 



Grapes are here picked into boxes holding forty to 

 fifty pounds each, which are carried, as fast as filled,, to 

 the avenues dividing the blocks. Thence they are con- 

 veyed, in wagons, to the winery, and crushed as soon as 

 they arrive. Most of the larger wineries have stemmers 

 and crushers combined, where the stems are removed 

 first, and drop before they are carried into the crusher. 

 Any attempted description of the different machines 

 used in this State would lead beyond the limits of this 

 book. Suffice it to say that some wineries have appara- 

 tus which enables them to prepare the material for mil- 

 lions of gallons of wine, within six weeks. Others are 

 content to make from 10,000 to 25,000 gallons with a 

 common hand crusher, and a screen for a stemmer, 

 upon which the bunches are rubbed, the berries falling 

 below. Some even do the work without stemming. As 

 a general thing the wines made in these smaller cellars 

 are of superior quality, because they are more carefully 

 and skillfully handled than those in the lai-ge cellars. In 

 those it is often impossible to grade and watch the prod- 

 uct sufficiently to secure the highest quality. It is 

 from the smaller cellars, where the proprietor personally 

 watches and manipulates everything, that we must con- 

 tinue to expect our choicest product. 



MAKING WHITE WINE. 



The process of making white wine is materially differ-_ 

 ent from that of making red wine. In white wines we 

 desire smoothness and delicacy ; in red wine, color and a 

 certain proportion of tannin and astringency. To make 

 wine from the li ght-colored vari eties, which are the 

 white wine .grapes proper, is a very simple matter. In 

 crushing the grapes into a fermenting vat the crusher 

 16 



