^92 "^HE VINEYARD. [Sept. 
Tlie method of making Red fVines. 
Red wines must always be made from black grapes, for besides 
the main pulp or core, which is white in these as well as the others, 
there sticks to the inside of the skin a considerable body of rich 
pulp of a deep red, more so in some kinds than others^ this gives 
the colour to the wine when extracted by a due process of fermen- 
tation. The colour of red wine is said to be heightened by gathering 
the grapes in the heat of the day, but this is productive of a con- 
siderable deficiency in the quantity, though the quality may be 
improved thereby. 
Taking these considerations into view, your grapes are to be 
collected with the same care as before directed in the making of 
white wines. Having a sufficient quantity gathered, put them into 
the vat, by degrees treading and mashing them effectually as you 
fill it, till quite full, and the liquor floating above them; then work 
the pulp and the liquor effectually together, leaving all the parts as 
loose as possible, and so let it remain to ferment. 
You ought to be provided with a cover for the top of the vat, 
perforated with holes, and made so as to easily slip down into it 
and sink a little under the superfices of the liquor, to keep the 
skins and pulpy parts from coming into contact with the air during 
the process of fermentation; for when this is exposed, and it tends 
to swim on the top, it very shortly becomes acid, and communi- 
cating this to the liquor greatly injures it. As the skins give the 
colour to the wine, nothing is better than the keeping of them 
down, without pressing, during this process, for to believe that 
these and other dregs floating on the top impede the evaporation 
of the spirit, is a thing improbable, since it requires a good cork 
to stop it. 
The moment of drawing off" the wine is of great importance, but 
generally, however, without rule. It would be impossible to pi'e- 
scribe a certain number of days for an operation liable to so many 
viscissitiides, as much through the qualities of the grapes as other 
circumstances. But as the great object of fermentation is the con- 
version of the must or expressed juice into wine, no drawing should 
take place until that it is effected. This moment, which might 
appear uncertain, may be ascertained with tolerable precision by 
means of a tin tube open at one end and perforated all over with 
holes of a small size, that the grains or stones of the fruit may not 
pass through when dipped into the vat; inside of this a small 
wooden cylinder must be placed, upheld at its bottom by a cork 
plate that can work up and down freely in the tube: this instru- 
ment is to be plunged into the vat and kept there, the liquor get- 
ting in through the holes of the tube will raise the cork to its 
surface, to which cork the wooden pin or cylinder is affixed. This 
latter must be marked in different heights, which will be seen to 
rise as the vinous fermentation increases. 
With this instrument, the precise moment in which the wine is 
to be drawn off", may be established with great exactness; this is 
generally done when the cylinder has attained to the highest and 
