194, QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1899. . 
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The best time for racking wine is during cool, dry weather; a warm, 
moist, muggy atmosphere is prejudicial, as it may start a fermentation, and 
occasionally communicates to light white wines a peculiar “mousey” flavour 
not easy to get rid of. 
Racking may be effected with the tap syphon or pump. The former is 
best for strong, fortified wines which require aerification to develop their 
qualities rapidly ; the latter is indicated for light wines, the aerification of which 
is to be avoided. The syphon is useful, as it does away with the hammering 
necessary to fix the tap with the possibility of the lees being stirred up by it, 
but the immersion of the syphon should be carefully regulated so that it shall 
not reach down to the lees and draw some over, neither be lowered insuffi- 
ciently and so leave a quantity of clear wine in the cask which will have to be 
removed with a tap.. After racking with a pump, the indiarubber hose should 
always be laid along the top of the casks in such a way that the moisture shall 
be able to drain from the centre to the ends, for it there are loops in the 
piping the moisture will collect there and rot the rubber. Never hang the 
hose over a nail, or allow any sharp angles in it, as the rubber will soon flatten 
at that point and begin to fissure. 
The casks into which the wine is racked should be well washed out and 
sulphured, and the sulphuring should take place a few minutes previous to the 
racking, and in moderation. A very common error is to use far too much 
sulphur with prejudicial, instead of beneficial, effects on the wine. The object 
of sulphuring is twofold—firstly, to act as a disinfectant to the cask and wine, 
as sulphur vapour kills or paralyses bacteria, germs of mould, &c. Secondly, 
to remove from the wine the oxygen absorbed by it during the racking. The 
vapour of burning sulphur (sulphurous acid) has a great attraction for oxygen, 
and if the cask is sulphured some time before the racking the sulphurous acid 
may become oxygenised before the wine is racked into it, and so be debarred 
from remoying the oxygen from the wine which, in the case of young light-red 
and white wines, assists acidification. When a cask is oversulphured, the air 
absorbed by the wine during racking is only sufficient to oxygenise a portion 
of the sulphurous acid; the remainder is dissolved in the wine, giving it a 
sulphurous smell until, by absorption of air through the bung or the pores of 
the wood, or by subsequent rackings, it is got rid of. A 4-oz. for 100 gallons 
of wine is sufficient for sound wine, but where fermentation is to be checked 
a larger quantity must be used. In the case of fortified sweet wine, sulphuring 
is not necessary—in fact, it does more harm than good, as the wine requires all 
the oxygen it can get to mature quickly. 
A word as to the best way of sulphuring casks. The common method of — 
burning strips of paper or rag daubed with melted sulphur in the cask is crude 
and unsatisfactory, as much of the burning sulphur drops on the bottom of the 
cask, which is liable to communicate a taste of bad eges to the wine, and any 
ash of the rag or paper, falling inside, might also affect the flavour of a fine 
wine. The best system of sulphuring is to fix a shallow iron cup to a thick 
wire, in which the sulphur is lighted before lowering into the cask; the cup 
must be very shallow or the sulphur will not keep alight, and it must also be 
small enough to pass through the bunghole. Another way is to prepare 
matches made by soaking a few yards of broad tape in melted sulphur, which 
is cut up into six-inch lengths; one or two lighted and placed in a round case 
of sheet iron pierced with holes to allow access of air and lowered into the 
eask will prevent dripping of burning sulphur. 
Rack, as a rule, into casks slightly smaller than those in which the wine 
was fermented, to allow for loss of bulk by removal of the lees, and be careful 
to keep the casks well filled up from time to time with sownd wine of similar 
character and quality. A second racking should be given in the spring before 
the hot weather sets in, 
