102 



which seems to have been borrowed from my late friend Faburoni" or 

 Don Casbois of Metz, who constructed in 1782 an hydraulic valve, of 

 the same characters as the wine-making apparatus of Gervais j or 

 from Goyon de la Plombanie, who in 1757 described an analogous pro- 

 cess ; or from the Neapolitan Porta, or the German Chemist Becker 

 who lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century. The new 

 invention is intended to prevent the escape of the spirituous and bal- 

 samic portions ; but the more rapid and agitated is the fermentation, 

 the less is the chance for the alcohol and aroma to be carried off, owing 

 to the vehement disengagement of the carbonic gas which keeps them 

 down. The more quiet and slowly this disengagement operates, the 

 more completely this gas saturates itself with the alcohol and fra- 

 grance. It is intended also to keep the scum and film from growing 

 sour, or putrescent, wliich they never do, when the vintner knows his 

 business and takes proper care. It has, moreover, been proved by 

 pubUu experiments, 1st, that the old method is the only one that 

 preserves the peculiar aroma and inherent qualities of the species ; 

 2nd, that the Gervais Patent does not increase the product by a thou- 

 sandth part, ; 3rd, that the liquor which rises and is condensed in 

 the retort-cover, is three parts water, and the rest a brandy, fetid with 

 the odour of tin ; 4th, that there is much to be gained by covering 

 the vat closel}', with the precaution, however, of leaving the sufficient 

 openings for the carbonic gas to go off readily ; 5thly, that tart, weak 

 wines, treated by the patent, do not become rich or even agreeable ; 

 they only gain a higher colour. 



As for the vinification, the vintage in loosely covered vessels, un- 

 dergoes a thorough transformation into wine and spirit : both the must 

 and the lees ; while in the close or slow fermentation, the assimilation 

 is irregularly completed in tlie racking casks, and the lees, on distil- 

 lation, afford two or three degrees less of alcohol. 



The Gervais-Patent, also, gives to delicate, rosy wines a deeper 

 colour, which, in commerce, may injure their sale, the characters 

 and appearances of such wines being established ; but it does not make 

 them purer or more fragrant. Whether the wines prepared by it will 

 keep as well, either, remains to be seen; they are, as yet, too green 

 for an opinion to be given. 



We would not have taken such pains to show the errors of this 

 system, save from a rooted antipathy of such attempts to profit by 

 the restrictive conditions of a process, first patented and then falsely 

 cried up. Recommendations given with mercantile complaisance and 



* Dell' arte difare il vino, in 8vo. paofo 1G9 of the Florence editions 

 of 1765. 89, and 1790. and p. 21, of the French translation of I'^Ol. 



