On the Cultivation of the Vine 9 
ing back the question to its real point of view it will be 
easy for us to terminate the difference. 
It is certain that the stalks are harsh and austere, and 
it cannot be denied, that wines produced from grapes not 
freed from the stalks do participate in that quality : but 
these are weak and almost insipid wines, such as the 
greater part of those made in moist countries, where the 
slightly harsh taste of the stalks heightens the natural in- 
sipidity of that beverage. Thus, in the Orleanois, agri- 
culturists, after freeing the grapes from the stalks, have 
been obliged to abandon this method, because they ob- 
served that the grapes freed from the stalks furnished 
wines more inclined to become oily. It results also, from 
the experiments of Gentel, that fermentation proceeds 
with more force and regularity in must mixed with the 
stalks than in that which has been freed from them ; so 
that in this point of view the stalks may be considered 
as an advantageous ferment in all cases where it is to be 
apprehended that the fermentation may be too slow or 
retarded. 
In the environs of Bourdeaux the red grapes are care- 
fully freed from the stalks when it is proposed to obtain 
good wine. But this operation is still modified according 
to the degree of the maturity of the grapes. It is much 
employed when the grapes have little ripeness, or when 
frost has taken place before their being collected ; but 
when the grapes are very ripe, it is performed with less 
care. Labadie observes, in the information with which 
he has supplied me, that the stalks must be left to facili- 
tate the fermentation. 
White grapes are never freed from the stalks ; and ex- 
perience proves, that grapes separated from the stalks 
give wines less spiritous, and more susceptible of becom- 
ing oily. 
