and the Method of making Wines, 409 
10 touch each other, and both experienced the same tem- 
perature. They were pressed down with a long pole. 
The cold vintage was pushed from the edges towards the 
centre where the heat was strongest : it was pressed 
down several times, and by these means an equal heat 
was maintained throughout the whole mass. The fer- 
mentation in the vat where this process had been follow- 
ed was finished twelve or fifteen hours sooner than in the 
other. The wine was far better, it was more delicate* 
had a superior taste, and was more highly coloured and 
more generous. No one would have said that it was pro- 
duced from the same grapes. 
The antients mixed aromatic substances with the vin- 
tage in a state of fermentation, in order to give their wines 
peculiar qualities. We are told by Pliny that it was 
usual in Italy to sprinkle pitch and resin over the vintage 
nt odor vino contingeret et sajpovis acumen . In all the 
works of that period we find numerous recipes for per- 
fuming wines ; but these different processes are no longer 
used. I am, however, inclined to think that they were 
of great benefit. This very important part of oinology 
deserves the particular attention of the agriculturist. 
When we consider the custom followed in some countries 
of perfuming the wines with raspberries, the dried 
flowers of the vine, &c. we may even presage the hap- 
piest effects from it. 
Darcet has communicated to me the following facts, 
which I take the earliest opportunity of publishing here, 
as they may give rise to experiments proper for improv- 
ing the art of vinification. 
“ I took/’ says he, “ a cask called half a muid , which 
I filled with the juice of untrod grapes, and such as had 
run of itself from the grapes as carried from the vineyard 
to the press : it therefore had very little colour. 
You. I„ 8 F 
