440 On the Cultivation of the Vine? 
to the temperature of the air, the nature of the grapes, the 
quality of the wine, &c. Others consider as a sign that 
the wine is tit to be removed from the vats, the sinking 
down of the vintage, being certainly ignorant that almost 
the whole of the wines of the North would lose their most 
valuable qualities, if their removal of the vats were delay- 
ed till that time. 
There are some countries where it is judged that the 
fermentation is completed, when the wine, after being put 
into a glass, exhibits no foam at the top, and no air-bub- 
bles at the sides of the glass. In other places it is thought 
sufficient to shake the wipe in a bottle, or to pour it from 
one glass into another several times, to ascertain whether 
there exists any foam. But besides that all new wines 
give more or less foam, there are many in which that 
mark of effervescence ought to be preserved, in order that 
they may not lose one of their principal properties. 
In some countries, a stick is immersed in the vat, and 
speedily drawn out ; the wine is then suffered to drop 
from it into a glass, to see whether a circle of foam is form- 
ed in it, which is called fairs la roue. Some thrust their 
hand into the refuse, and, applying it to their nose, judge, 
by the smell, of the state of the vat : if the smell is mild, 
they allow the wine to ferment some time longer ; if it is 
strong, it is removed from the vats. 
Some agriculturists, also, consult only the colour in or- 
der to regula te the period of removing the wine from vats. 
They suffer it to ferment till the colour becomes sufficient- 
ly dark : but the coloration depends on the nature of the 
grapes ; and must in the same climate, and produced 
from the same soil, does not always show the same dis- 
position to acquire colour; which renders this sign ex 
ceedingly variable and very insufficient. 
It thence follows, that all these signs, taken separately, 
cannot exhibit invariable results ; and that, if we wish to 
