192 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1898, 
Viticulture. 
CELLAR CONSTRUCTION AND REQUIREMENTS. 
By E. H. RAINFORD, 
Viticulturist, Queensland Agricultural Department. 
THE CELLAR. 
Ons of the first necessities in wine-making is a cellar, wherein to make it and 
store it, built on certain rational principles which will permit the wine to keep 
sound, mature, andimprove. This is a point to which vignerons in Queeng- 
land are, with one or two exceptions, singularly inattentive; they make and 
store their wine in erections without one single requisite of a properly con- 
structed and arranged cellar, the majority being merely a barn or shed with 
an interior temperature ranging from freezing point to 100 degrees Fah. 
Wine cannot be expected to keep sound under such conditions, much less 
improve, and consequently some vignerons have to suffer a serious yearly loss 
by wine fermenting badly and afterwards becoming sour, pricked, or scudd ; 
or by after fermentation causing loss of colour, flatness, and other defects, 
The one panacea hitherto has been to fortify wine to avoid these dangers, 
whereas had more care been taken in building a rational celiar, no mattter how 
small for a beginning; they would have avoided these troubles. There is not 
only a pecuniary loss, but, what is worse still, Queensland wines lose their 
name. It is not to be denied that both outside and inside the colony Queens- 
land wines have acquired a bad reputation entirely owing to the defects 
mentioned, and the drastic remedies employed to prevent or mask them. 
Unless measures are adopted to put an end to the evil, our wines will continue 
to bear a bad name and have a restricted sale, bringing a loss alike to the 
vignerons and the colony; and one of the measures to be employed to 
ameliorate this state of affairs is undoubtedly a proper system of cellarage, 
It is perfectly useless for any man to plant a vineyard and start wine-making 
if he has not a properly constructed cellar to store it in; and if his finances 
will not permit of his going to the expense, he had better drop wine-makin 
and sell his grapes to other vignerons. Some advice on the requirements of a 
cellar and its construction will, no doubt, be useful to many of our vigneronsg, 
Tt is in the cellar the wine is lodged from its birth, to grow, improve, and 
acquire those qualities which will stamp its future character and value. To 
effect this, it should be so constructed as to maintain during the hot season a 
temperature of from 70 degrees to 75 degrees, and for the winter not lower 
than 50 degrees to 60 degrees. If the summer temperature can be still further 
reduced, so much the better. Alternations of heat and cold are liable not only 
to compromise the future qualities of the wine, but likewise its preservation 
and soundness, by provoking fermentation or dangerous chemical decom- 
positions and recombinations. It must not be forgotten that wine is of a yer 
complex nature, many of its constituents being easily decomposed, and the 
maturing will be best performed in a perfect state of repose. For this reason 
not only should brusque changes of temperature be avoided, but likewise all 
causes of vibration which could promote internal movement of the wine. 
The cellar should not be too damp or too dry. In the former case you risk 
contamination of the wine by fungus growth and mouldiness of casks and 
cellar utensils ; in the latter, you have evaporation of the wine, shrinkage of 
empty casks and hoops, &c.; but of the two evils choose the latter—over- 
dampness cannot be too much condemned. 
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