AGRICULTURE. 205 
fermentation, except that it receives much more attention, and 
is made from a more careful selection of berries, than any other 
kind of wine. After the first fermentation, the wine is put in 
bottles, and these are placed in racks with their necks down, 
the racks being made so that the bottles can be raised and 
lowered; and the position of the bottles is changed from time 
to time, to assist fermentation, which continues, though in a 
suppressed form—the carbonic acid gas being retained in the 
Wine, instead of escaping as it does during the fermentation 
of still wines in the open barrel. The management of spark- 
ling wines is very complicated. It varies greatly in different 
places, and is usually kept as secret as possible. Thus, the 
Sainsevains keep their process to themselves. 
White grapes will not make a red wine; but the skins, if 
left to ferment with the juice, will give it a dirty-yellow or 
light-brown color. 
The general custom, in making wine, is to use the pure juice 
of the grape, but wine-makers consider it not unwholesome or 
disreputable to put sugar, water, or brandy, into certain kinds 
of wines; all of which, however, are unnecessary and injurious 
to the finer kinds of still wines. Sugar and water endanger 
the keeping qualities of the wine, and brandy spoils the flavor. 
In France, it is common to put sugar or rock-candy into wine 
intended for the sweet tastes of the Americans; and in bad 
years, when the grapes are sourish, they sweeten a little for 
home consumption. Brandy is sometimes used to prevent 
wine from turning into vinegar; but the mixture, if strong 
enough to have the desired effect, deserves rather the name 
of adulterated brandy than of wine. Different kinds of pure 
wines may be mixed without impropriety, but the label should 
not misrepresent the nature of the mixture. It is a fraud to 
mix a bad wine with a fine article, and then sell it by the name 
of the latter. If a wine-maker sends his wine into the market 
under his own name, no other person can honestly mix any 
thing else with it, and still preserve the name of the original 
maker. 
