93 



The vintage should take place of a fair day, and when the sun has 

 ried the dew. It must be done with the greatest activity and des- 

 iiatch, because dry sunny weather at that period of the year is variable. 

 Tf rain comes on, the vintage must be put back ; the delay of a day 

 or two is better than to manufacture, from wetted grapes, a wine 

 that wOl not keep. Grapes gathered during a hot and dry time, or 

 at a middling temperature, ferment the quickest and strongest. 



To gather the fruit, some use a pruning hook, or knife, others their 

 hands, and the greater number, slender shears. The pruning hook is 

 wholly unfit; the instrument is clumsy, and in cutting the stem of the 

 bunch, the plant necessarily suffers a shock which makes the ripest 

 berries fall, and also dried leaves, which soak up the juice, diminish 

 the quantity of the must and communicate an acrid savour to it. The 

 pruning knife gives the plant a still stronger shake. The abuse is 

 even greater where the vintagers are allowed to use their fingers ; the 

 stem rarely breaks at the first pull ; and when repeated, the jerk it 

 communicates to the branch, rains down berries and leaves over the 

 whole groimd. The only advantageous way is to use a very long, 

 slender pair of shears, which divide the stem with care and occasion 

 110 loss. 



The vintager's basket should be small, and he should lay the bunch 

 ni it as lightly as possible, for fear of bruising the grapes. In large 

 baskets, the fruit is heaped and crushed, and the richest part of the 

 juice runs to waste. A deep basket, holding two pecks, narrow at 

 bottom, and gradually spreading broader to the brim, is the proper 

 kind. This shape allows the weight of the fruit, instead of resting 

 on the bottom entirely, to faU more on the sides of the basket, which 

 prevents the crushing of the lowermost bunches. The vintager, as he 

 cuts, should pick out and throw away the dry, rotten, or green ber- 

 ries. The dried berries soak up the must and give out an acid taste ; 

 rotten grapes ruin the wine ; the green ones give a harsh rough taste, 

 and make the wine likely to sour. If such grapes are not picked out, 

 there will result, among the other evils they occasion, an unequal fer- 

 mentation of the saccharine and aqueous matters and a striking detoria- 

 tion in the quality, which carmot be masked. The fruit is transported 

 to the wine vats in waggons, or on the shoulders of men, or in pan- 

 niers slung across horses. The gatherings of each vintager are re- 

 moved into larger willow baskets, or into barrows expressly for this 

 use. 



The custom of using willow panniers is none the better for being 

 the most ancient known ; owing to their elasticity the slightest move 

 ment causes the fruit to sagg and the skins to break, consequently th^* 



