34 CULTIVATION 



time it is running from the press. This gum or 

 mucilage is held in solution in the Juice, and is 

 invisible before the fermentation commences, but 

 so soon as that process begins, the clear liquor 

 becomes turbid and a separation takes place; some 

 subsides and settles to the bottom, some becomes 

 charged with carbonic acid gas, and floats on the 

 top until the gas escapes, when it sinks to the 

 bottom. This is the time to separate the wine 

 from the superabundant yeast, as there will still be 

 enough left to carry forward the fermentation with 

 sufficient rapidity to insure a sound good wine. 

 The wine then wiU not in all cases be clear, but if 

 it is a little turbid it should be racked off and the 

 cask well washed out with cold water, and the 

 wine returned into it to complete the fermentation. 

 Some wine will not require a second racking off, as 

 the separation from the ferment or lees, will have 

 been sufficiently effected, and the fermentation 

 during its future progress will be moderate enough 

 to fine itself bright and clear; but if that should 

 not be the case, and it still continues roily, some 

 article should be added to fine it." (This will be 

 noticed under the head of fining,) 



" Whenever the wine appears clear, it should be 

 racked off, and in most cases it will become bright 

 The process of fermentation does not however stop 

 here, as it is constantly progressing in the form of 

 an insensible fermentation, elaborating and combin- 

 ing the elements of the new and acrid, and produc- 

 ing a mellowness of the wine that is only acquired 



