per tons , to make a J, mall quantity of very choice wines , 
cut them off and make a wine by itfelf which is much 
inferior to that which is made of the upper part of the 
bunch. This pradlUe, though attended with trouble, may 
be recommended for a larger parcel, in fucb years as the 
Grapes are hardly ripe, to have fome wine, at leaf, in 
perfection. 
N. B. Thofe per fans who value themf elves on making 
the befi wines, and endeavour to keep up the reputation 
of their vineyards and cellars, in cutting their Grapes, 
leave the unripe, or thofe that are infebled with a rotten- 
nefs, together, till th& la ft, and with them make a vat or 
more, by themfelves of vin fcauro, or refufe wine, which 
ferves for common ufe , for which alfo they mix water with 
the bottom of their Pats, and the hufks, &c. and make 
a pleafant brifk drink much preferable to water cyder, but 
the weather once coming in warm, turns it eager and un- 
drinkable. 
9. When the wines are found to be ready, they pro- 
ceed to draw them off, which are now properly called 
wines (before which they are termed motto, i. e. in 
"Englifh, wort,) for which purpofe, within three or 
four inches of the bottom of the vat, there is a cock 
fixed, therein. When in final 1 barrels, they carry and 
put into the large butts, which in Chianti hold, fome 
of them, feven or eight tons, but generally two or 
three tons, made of thick Cheftnut, the ftaves being 
more than an inch and a half thick, and more than 
twice as high as they are long, which they never 
wafh, but having left a gallon or two, it may be 
three or four, of wine in them, when they draw it 
off the fpring or fummer before, when they are about 
filling them again to clear them out, they fend in a 
lad at the door, which is made in the head of the 
cafk, to do it with a fponge, and to wafh it with 
fome new wine, and this without wiping off any of the 
argol, which they think preferves the wine the better. 
In which calks, which laft many years, (and have ar- 
gol in them of the thicknefs fometimes of three or 
four inches) they let them remain till they have an 
opportunity of felling them, taking care to keep 
them full quite to the bung with a wooden ftopper. 
This is what they pradife in Chianti, where the beft 
wines are made, and whence, from thofe butts they 
are drawn into flafks, and carried at the expence of 
about a crown for a mule-load, to Florence, in order 
for exportation ; but in other places they draw them 
off into lefs cafks, of which wines, except fome Car- 
niguano’s, and thofe of Val d’Arno, few or none are 
exported, but ferve for the confumption of the coun- 
try. Some of thefe have a pleafant flavour and brifk- 
nefs, though of no great body, many of which will 
not keep the fummer over, except in cool cellars, in 
the places, where made, fuch is the nice nature of this 
country wines in general. Nor are the choiceft Chi- 
anti’s exempt, for at two feafons of the year, the be- 
ginning of June and September, the one when the 
Grapes are in flower, and the other when they begin 
to ripen, fome even of the beft wines are apt to change, 
efpecially at this latter feafon ; not that they turn ea- 
ger, but take a moft unpieafing tafte, which renders 
them unfit not only for drinking, but even to make 
vinegar of, and is called the fettembrine. And what 
is moft ftrange, is, that one cafk drawn out of the 
fame vat fhall be infeded, and another not, but be 
perfedly good, and yet have both been kept in the 
fame cellar too. 
As this change happens not to wine in flafks, though 
that will turn eager, I am apt to attribute it to fome 
fault in filling of the cafk, which muft always be kept 
full, which either by letting alone too long, till the 
decreafe be too great, and the feum that there natu- 
rally is on all wine, thereby being too much dilated, 
is lubjed to break, or elfe being broken by hafty fill- 
ing up, gives it that vile tafte of a rotten Vine leaf. 
But againft this there is a very ftrong objection, that 
this defect feizes the wine at a particular feafon, in 
September, over which if it gets, it will hold good 
for many years. 
As for the time that the wines are fit to drink, the 
i poorer fort of people drink that of the plains aimed 
as loon as drawn off, but from the 1 1 th of November 
may be faid to be its proper feafon. 
Thofe of the hills are a very pleafant drink about 
Chriftmas, and during the fpring, but till June the 
Chianti’s are not efteemed to be fit for drinking, tho® 
they are fit for exportation in butts in December, and 
in the flafks and chefts about the beginning of Fe- 
bruary ; but if fooner fhipped off in that manner, 
though apparently fine, there will be a fediment in 
the flafks. 
The art of brewing wines (further than the throwing 
into each great butt the quantity of two or three hat- 
fuls of the choiceft Grapes they had preferved, and 
laid on mats in the fun for that purpofe, which were 
picked from the ftalks, and are efteemed proper for 
their wines to feed on, and which they call governo) 
was not known in Chianti (though the hofts here 
pradifed fomething like it, mixing the fmall wines of 
this country with the ftrong ones of other parts, and 
fining their white wines with ifinglafs, whites of eggs, 
lime, and the like, and were thought to put allum 
into the red wines to preferve them, and promote a 
thirft in their guefts) till on the breaking out of the 
French war, an Englifh merchant from Bourdeaux 
came into thefe parts, with a view to accommodate 
the wines which were made in the beft parts of Chi- 
anti, and were naturally of a true bright ruby, with 
a pleafant flavour, and a filky foftnefs, to the Englifh 
palates, then in love with the deep-coloured rough 
clarets, who inftruded them firft in the making of 
black wines with a Labrufco or wild Grape,' which, 
being mixed with the Chianti’s, giving them a deeper 
colour and a rougher tafte, and being liked in Eng- 
land, gave the firft occafion to great quantities being 
fent thither every year in cafks, in making of which 
the faid gentleman was the firft that inftruded them, 
for before, their cafks were, as above related, very 
unwieldy. This put them alfo (there being a demand 
for their wines) upon increafing and enlarging their 
cultivations, and making fome of them in fuch places 
as the expofition was not very proper for, as alfo to 
cultivate in vineyards the faid Labrufco or wild Grape, 
and which certainly was the moft proper to mix with 
their other Grapes in the vat, boiling them together. 
So all fucceeded pretty well till the year 1607, when 
the vintage proving very bad, and there being a great 
demand of their wines for England, by mixing the 
low wines with the high ones of Chianti, whicn that 
feafon were not very good, they brought thefe wines 
into fuch a difreputation, that they have never been 
able to regain their credit, though they have fince, 
many times, had thofe that are good. 
At prefent, therefore, what goes for England is 
chiefly in chefts, and no more black wines, as ufed 
to be formerly, and thefe are fent juft as they are 
made ; but ftill in Chianti, as they have cultivations 
of the Brufco Grape (which however is much different 
from the wild one, and becomes much larger and 
more generous,) they continue to mix them with other 
Grapes, which gives the great colour as well as rough- 
nefs to their wines, and is agreeable enough to the 
Englifh tafte. ° 
Having thus acquainted you with what I know £nd 
can learn in relation to the making and managing of 
vineyards, and the wines they produce, it remains 
iOr me to add an evil, that befides the ordinary ones 
of hails, ftorms, and frofts, attends the cultivation 
of Vines in Chianti, and the parts contiguous, for 
in the plains there is no fuch thing, and that is a very 
fmall kind of blackifh, or very dark green caterpil- 
lar, which in the month of May attacks the youn^ 
llioots of the Vines, when the Grapes are in embryo^ 
and deftroys them for which however they have a 
moft certain remedy, which is to make a little ring 
of birdlime round the foot of each Vine, about eight 
inches above the ground, which none of thefe noxious 
infefts (which I prefume proceed from the earth, and 
are not brought in the air, as fome of the like are 
thought to be, though thefe come generally with an 
