166 Memoir on the Vineyardsand Wines 
The whites of five or six fresh eggs are diluted in a 
ehopin of water; and this quantity is sufficient for each 
piece or puncheon containing two hundred and forty 
Iiottles. 
There are only two hundred bottles in a puncheon of 
white wine. 
The whites of eggs are well beaten up and then 
thrown into the puncheon, the contents of which are then 
briskly stirred up by a cleft stick. 
This operation is performed previous to bottling the 
wine or sending it off to a market. 
At what Age should Red Wines he bottled? 
In general, the red wines of Haute Montague are bot- 
tled in the month of November succeeding the vintage, 
that is, thirteen months afterwards. This season of the 
year is fixed upon because all germination has ceased, 
and Nature is in a state of perfect repose ; thereby all 
fermentation is avoided ; and red wines may therefore be 
safely bottled from the first of October until the end of 
December: at any other season great inconveniencies 
would arise ; for I know of nothing worse than red wine 
bottled in spring time ; it retains a slight degree of fer- 
mentation, and is very disagreeable to the taste. 
There are some excellent and generous wines which 
caii remain three or four years on their lees : of this de- 
scription are the wines of Saint Thierry. 
Ho to long will Red Wines keep in Bottles? 
The more body and spirit the wine has, the better is it 
preserved in bottles : the more tender, delicate, and light 
it is, the more difficultly is it kept. 
This is the reason why the wines of Madly, Chiny, 
Chenay, and Hermonville, keep worse than those of 
Yerzenay, Bouzy, and Yerzy ; and these last worse than 
