732 
in general use are isinglass and the white of 
eggs; but as these, particularly in warm cli- 
mates, are of a putrescent nature, gum arabic 
has been used instead of them. In Spain the 
white wines are sometimes clarified with fuller’s 
earth. Powdered marble, gypsum, heated flints, 
beechwood chips, and a variety of other things, 
are used for the same purpose. The quantity, 
however, of any of these substances used is very 
small; one ounce of isinglass, for example, is suf- 
ficient for a hundred gallons of wine. Brandy is 
sometimes mixed with wine; and different wines 
are as frequently mixed with each other ;—pro- 
cesses which require great attention and nicety. 
The manufacture of French champagne, the 
finest of all brisk wines, may be selected for par- 
ticular detail, both because it comprises the ut- 
| most niceties of the general process of wine- 
| making, and because it very distinctly shows 
| the production of a lively creaming wine to de- 
pend upon the expulsion of a certain portion of 
the yeast by overflow from the vent-hole, so as to 
leave in the liquor a preponderance of undecom- 
posed saccharine matter. And this is described as 
follows by MacCulloch, in his Treatise on Wine- 
Making :—“ The grapes are first squeezed by a 
gentle pressure, and poured into the vat, where 
they remain for one night-only. The next morn- 
| ing the liquor is transferred into casks. If the 
wine is intended to be red, the fermentation is 
_ allowed to continue some time longer on the 
husks, till the red colour has been extracted ; 
| but the seeds are carefully separated, as they 
communicate a harsh taste. The first fermenta- 
| tion in the casks is violent, and the discharge of 
| the yeast is encouraged for ten or twelve days, 
by keeping them full to the bung-hole. It then 
becomes more moderate, when the bung is put 
down, and a gimlet-hole, fitted with a spile, is 
made by the side of it. When the cask is thus 
closed, the vent-hole is opened every day or two, 
according to the state of the fermentation, for a 
space of eight or ten days, to allow the carbonic 
'| acid to escape. When this state is passed, fresh 
wine, reserved for the purpose, is poured in at 
the vent-hole, about once a-week, for the first 
three or four weeks, according to its waste, so as 
to fill the cask. This operation is then performed 
at longer intervals, of a month or more, till the 
end of December, when the wine usually becomes 
| clear. It is afterwards decanted from the lees 
| into a fresh cask, where it is fined with isinglass, 
in the proportion of half an ounce to a pipe; and 
this process of decanting is carefully executed 
| in dry clear frosty weather, A new fermentation 
is now excited, by which the wine loses a por- 
tion of its sweetness, and becomes still further 
meliorated.” If it should prove too sweet, this 
first operation of decanting is not performed 
until the fermentation in the first cask has been 
rendered more vigorous, which is done by stir- 
ring up the lees, and rolling the pipe; and by 
this the sweetness is overcome, and the wine 
hee 
WINE. 
strengthened and improved. To insure the fine- | 
ness of this wine, which is one of its essential 
properties, and to render it at the same time 
durable, it is at the end of six weeks decanted a 
second time into a fresh pipe, and once more 
fined with half the quantity of isinglass. It is 
then completed, and is put into bottles in March, 
—clear dry weather being also chosen for this 
purpose. Notwithstanding all this care, a fresh 
deposit is still formed in the bottles, from a re- 
newal of the fermenting process, which goes on 
in them, To remove this, and to render the 
wines marketable, those of the best quality are 
decanted clear into fresh bottles in about fifteen 
or eighteen months, when the wine is perfected. 
A certain loss, amounting to one or two bottles 
in a dozen, is sustained, by their exploding pre- 
vious to this last stage. Another process is some- 
times adopted for getting rid of the sediment, 
without the trouble of decanting. 
the bottles are reserved in a frame proper for the 
purpose during a certain number of days, so as 
to permit the foulness to fall into the neck. 
While in this position, the cork is dexterously 
withdrawn, and that portion of the wine which 
is foul allowed to escape, after which the bottles 
are filled with clear wine, permanently corked, 
and secured with wire and wax.” 
The manufacture of British wines from goose- 
berries, currants, cherries, oranges, apples, pears, 
and other fruits is so generally known, and is 
concerned with such comparatively poor beve- 
rages, that nothing needs be said respecting it. 
But the manufacture of wines from green or un- 
ripe British-grown grapes, and from the leaves 
and prunings of the plants of British vineries, is 
so limitedly known, and has been found to pro- 
duce such comparatively excellent beverages, that 
some notes upon it may be acceptable to many 
readers; and happily some highly satisfactory 
ones lie ready at our hand, in a paper by a very 
intelligent writer, who speaks from both scienti- 
fic knowledge and actual experiment, — Mr. 
Towers. “The must,” says this writer, “cannot 
with safety be converted to a dry wine, unless its 
gravity be considerable, because the leaven will 
act energetically upon a light and weak fluid, 
decompose the sugar in a very short period, and 
cause the poor thin wine, which will be the re- 
sult, to run speedily into the acetous fermenta- 
tion. Therefore, to prepare a dry and keeping 
white wine from green, immature grapes, it will 
require an increased quantity of both materials ; 
and the following receipt may with confidence 
be taken as a standard,—let the quantity be 
considered six gallons. Grapes bruised. without 
crushing the seeds, 36 lb. to be digested with 
water in a pan or tub, covered at top with a 
flannel. The gravity of the liquid should be 
tried by a saccharometer or by the comparison of 
weights with pure rain or distilled water after 
the'materials have stood together two hours,— 
again, after twelve hours,—and a third time 
In this mode, 
