258 
ON COLONIAL WINES. 
perfectly dry, breaking the bunches as little as possible, 
packing them in the vats, covering the vats when full 
with thick woollen rugs, and leaving them so for a few 
days " to sweat." In this interval much of this transi- 
tion matter, and many not perfectly ripe grapes, will 
be brought into a perfect condition. 
There is now no doubt on my mind that the red 
wines of Victoria may be vastly improved by the 
careful study by intelligent vine-growers of the condi- 
tions of ripeness of grapes, methods of crushing, 
vatting, and storing of their produce, in relation 
mainly to climate. The French methods of making 
red wine in most places south of the dividing range 
seem the best. The German methods, as in use on 
the Rheingau, turn out the best white wines south of 
the dividing range, and the Spanish and Portuguese 
ones suit best the north. Of course there will be 
spots, north of the dividing range, that will yield 
some varieties of dry wines ; but, as a rule, it is 
merely torturing the musts of high saccharine strength, 
in a necessarily hot climate, to attempt to make of 
them wines of the hock and sauterne character. The 
Spanish grapes, which produce the manzanilla, would 
probably yield a dry wine there. 
WINES LEFT AFTEE THE EXHIBITION OF 1866-7 FOB 
FUTUKE STUDY AND EEPOET. 
There were sent to the Intercolonial Exhibition of 
1866-7 not a few samples of red wine from the north 
of the dividing range — Hopwood's of Echucca; Guppys, 
of Benalla ; one or two of Piper's, and some others — 
that obtained no distinction whatever at the time. 
