1 Aprit, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 281 
Viticulture. 
CELLAR WORK. 
By E. H. RAINFORD, 
_ Viticulturist, Queensland Agricultural Department. 
In Southern Italy it is customary, when the must has been put into casks to 
complete its fermentation, for the proprietor to stick a penny print of sume 
saint on the head of each barrel, and leave it thenceforth to the exclusive care 
and guardianship of his patron. The practice is a pious but an unwise one. 
Many members of the saintly community appear to be too much occupied with 
more serious matters to attend to these details, to jadge from the amount of 
wine that goes bad. The Anglo-Saxon, as a rule, prefers to attend to his 
mundane affairs himself, but there is no denying that some colonial vignerons, 
with the exception of the penny print, follow pretty much in the steps of their 
Latin brethren. 
Few things require more care and watching than young wine, and the 
vigneron who gives it his unremitting attention will reap his reward later on. 
Theoretically, good must from a good grape should ferment unassisted into a’ 
good wine, and it frequently docs so, but there are many gradations between 
a perfect wine and vinegar, and in the majority of cases it will turn out some- 
- where between the two points, according as more or less care has been paid to 
it in its preparation, fermentation, and after-life. So many influences affect 
adversely the composition of must and its change into wine—such as the care 
expended on the cultivation of the vine, prevalence or not of disease of the 
vine and grapes, amount of rainfall before.and during the vintage, an abnor-. 
mally high or low temperature during the fermentation, &c.—that the perfect 
balance of the component parts may be upset, which is provocative of an 
unsound or irregular fermentation, and will necessitate the watchful assistance 
of the vigneron. P 
WHITE WINES. . 
Before proceeding further, it must be explained that the word “wine” in the 
following remarks is used to express the partially fermented must or new wine. 
it is a common practice to leave both white and red wines to become per- 
fectly clear before the first racking takes place. In the case of white wine 
this is a mistake. White must that has been run into the cask directly from 
tke mill contains a much greater quantity of albuminous substances than red; 
the latter has been purified by fermentation with the husks and stalks, which’ 
has the effect of removing a considerable amount both by the chemical action 
of the tannin and by the mechanical action of the mare. 
These albuminous matters are yery prone to decomposition, the effect 
' of which would be to spoil the aroma of the wine, give it an unpleasant 
earthy taste and foxiness of colour, besides leaving the wine liable to 
further alterations; no time, therefore, should be lost. in removing them, 
After the first fermentation is over and the wine has: entered into the after 
fermentation which slowly decomposes the remaining sugar, the bulk of the 
albuminous matters will be deposited in the gross lees; and although the wine 
is still more or less milky, the vigneron should not hesitate to rack the wine 
into a clean cask. The cleanliness of the cask cannot be too much insisted 
upon; it should be well washed out with, clean water and then sulphured, or, 
better still, rinsed with fresh water acidvlated with 5 per cent. of sulphuric. 
acid, and well drained. If sulphur is.employed, avoid burning too much, or it 
may check the fermentation ot the wine racked into it, which would cause 
