V i T 
and fkins, or feparated the one from the other •, this 
depends on the manner after which one would make 
the wine. 
When it has been tunned a confiderable time, the 
wine is lefs green, lefs fubjeft to be ropy, and better 
for keeping, than if it -were done off-hand, or fit for 
prefent drinking. 
But if the Grape be tunned too much, it takes from 
it much of its quality, becailfe it leaves a harfh- 
nefs which renders it not fit for drinking; for above 
a year in certain lands, and in others it never lofes 
the tafte of the Grape (tone ; and when with this ex- 
cels of the vat, it has a colour as red as ox blood, 
it is a wine which they call groffier or matin ; and it 
is commonly faid it is better to keep than to drink. 
When a wine has this fault, one cannot render it 
drinkable, but by mingling it with good dry new 
white wine. 
Then it is this excefs of the vat which renders our wines 
hard, and makes them difefteemed without any dif- 
tindion, although all our wines are not made after this 
manner,; But it is an eafy matter to avoid this fault, 
which renders our wines contemptible. 
There are thofe who tun the Grape ftone with the fkin, 
and would give to their wine only that degree of the 
vat which it ought to have; and not to be ftrong, they 
draw it out from time to time by a pipe, or by fome 
little hole Which they make in the vat, but this I do 
not approve of, for reafons to be given in the follow- 
ing article. 
Others make ufe of a Vine prop, or fome other piece 
of wood, which they thruft into the vat, from whence 
they draw it out quick, and let it drop into a giafs, 
where they examine if it have colour enough, and if 
it makes a circle of fcum, and boils and bubbles, 
which they call faire le roue : others watch till the 
marc is rifen to fuch a height, and make a judgment 
by that. 
As for myfelf, I am of the opinion, that it would be 
a furer way to thruft one’s hand a pretty way into 
the vat, (which I fuppofe to be raifed, and to have 
been worked,) to take from thence a handful of the 
marc, and to put it to one’s nofe, as the dyers do, 
to judge of the difpofition of their vats ; then one 
may know if the wine be made, and if it has colour 
enough. 
When it fmells fweet, you fhould let it work a little 
longer in the vat, until it has loft that ftnell, and has 
a ftrong fcent that affedts the nofe •, then it ought to 
be taken, for one quarter of an hour at moft is fuffi- 
cient to force it. 
A wine taken in its proper degree of the vat, will ne- 
ver tafte of the Grape ftone •, it will be always fit to 
drink, and alfo will keep good for many years. 
I agree alfo, that the wine that has been tunned too 
much, becomes tart and harfh, and that is what takes 
away its quality ; and as it is the Grape ftone, and not 
the fkin, that caufes this tartnefs and harfhnefs, the 
means to prevent this inconvenience is, in being yery 
careful as to the degree of the vat that is given to the 
wine. 
But as one may often be deceived in giving it too much 
or too little of the vat, I think the fureft way would 
be, to ftone the Grapes when they are trampled, be- 
fore they are put into the vat. 
This work would not be fo much trouble as it may 
be imagined ; for one ftoner would luffice to employ 
one treader, let him tread as faft as he can. 
When the Grapes are bruifed in a wine prefs, feveral 
may employ themfelves in ftoning. One method of 
doing it is, to put them into a bafket plated, &c. 
about fix feet long, four feet broad, and ten or twelve 
inches high ; and that this may not be any incum- 
brance, it may be placed about the middle of the prefs, 
and have two men to fift and feparate the fkins from 
the Grape ftones. 
I find that a cribble is much more convenient, for it 
takes up lefs room, and there needs but one man to 
work above, and the work will be as eafiiy, or more 
eafily done. 
V I T 
I have feen many pf thefe cribbles, but that which I 
am going to deicribe, appears to me to be the moft 
commodious. 
The cribble for ftoning the Grapes ought to be made 
with brafs wire, becaufe this is more pliant, and 
does not ruftfo much, and lafts longer than iron wire. 
The holes ought to be an inch in breadth, aimoft of 
an o flagon al figure ; it is worked upon two hoops 
joined together, the one upon the other ; arid when 
it is finifhed, it is to be covered with a third hoop or 
band, that is about four inches High. 
As the 'marc is falling in by the wine being preffed 
out, and is rifen to the height of the cribble, they 
put under to fupport it a band of wood, or little 
hoop, two or three fingers high, wh'ch goes round 
at the bottom of the cribble ; and befides this, four 
round iron bars of the thicknefs of a little finger •, 
becaufe if they were broad, the fkins of the Grapes 
would reft there, which would hinder the other from 
pafilng. 
It is proper to put thefe iron bars in fuch a manner, 
that two of the four may fuftain the other two, and 
that they may be all of one length. 
The ends ought to crofs the two hoops, and to co- 
ver the third-, and they muft be joined to many places 
of the trellis of brafs wire, which may be double or 
treble. 
The wood of the hoop ought to be notched in two 
places over againft one another, and about an inch in 
depth, and three in breadth, according to that of the 
ftaves upon which it is to be placed ; and thefe ftaves 
fhould be placed upon a fcuttle refting upon the vat, 
upon which they tread the Grapes. 
It is allb proper that thefe notches be plated with iron, 
and that they have two handles or grafps of iron, pret- 
ty thick and round, to prevent the hurting'the hands 
of him that manages the cribble, becaufe it is weighty, 
and there is often occafion to remove it from place to 
place. 
This cribble may be about a foot in height, eight or 
nine in circumference, and an inch in thicknefs at the 
top, and fomething more at the bottom, becaufe of 
a band of wood that is placed round about to fuftain 
the trellis, as I have faid before. 
The treader having bruifed the Grapes, jnftead of 
pufning the mafs in the vat with his foot, as is done 
when he would tun the Grapes with the fkin, it is 
taken either with a bowl, ora pail, or with the hand, 
and put into the cribble ; then the ftoner feparates the 
marc as well as he can, the fkin from the ftone, and 
cafts the latter into a veffel that ftands near him ; and 
when that is filled with the Grapes, they carry it to 
the middle of the prefs in a pail, or in a bafket, and 
from time to time empty into the vat, the fkiris and 
the wine which are in the veffel, which has been 
ftoned. 
The bufinefs of the vintage gatherers being finifhed, 
they put the marc and all the (tones that are upon the 
middle, and they lower the plank to draw from thence 
the wine that is found there. 
Some give it another bruifing, but I believe very un- 
profitably, for that cannot get out much wine, and 
alfo that which they get from thefe ftones has nothing 
but a harfhnefs ; but neverthelefs one may, becaufe 
there is a little of it may be mingled with the other 
that is in the vat. 
One marc of Grapes, which one may reckon ten 
poinfons, may yield about fifty pints of wine, or there- 
abouts. This depends upon the fize of the Grapes, 
and the heat which has been during the' time of the 
vintage gathering. 
The wine being boiled with its Akin, it will be rie- 
ceffary to obferve, from time to time, if it have co- 
lour enough, and if it be fufficiently made to be 
drawn off ; and when it is found that it is not yet red 
enough, the marc muft be thruft down in the vat in or- 
der to give it the colour, and never to be forced ; you 
may alfo cover the vat with a coarfe linen cloth double, 
and put the board of the prefs upon that, in cafe one is 
apprehenfive that it will lofe a part of its ftrength. 
