280 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Oor., 1898. 
degrees, which has the effect of preventing the solution solidifying when cool. 
By using fresh blood, eggs, &e., the vigneron knows that he is employing pure 
and sweet material, a fact of which he is not certain in the case of the patent 
articles ; and as the vendors must make good profits, they will certainly not 
prove as economical. : 
If a wine is being fined to reduce colour and astringency, it is well to take 
a sample from the cask at the time, and run it through a filtering-paper in a 
small funnel to clear it. By doing so, it can be seen if the colour is correct or 
if more finings are required, which could be added at once. 
All fined wines should be racked directly they are bright, especially in 
this climate, as there is a risk of the lees or deposit in the cask decomposing 
and communicating a bad taste to the wine. Hyen in cold weather a fort- 
night is quite long enough for the wine to stand before racking. For the 
same reason cold weather should be chosen for fining wine when possible. 
ADDITION OF TANNIN TO WHITE WINES. 
Before a white wine is fined, it is necessary to find out whether it contains 
sufficient tannin to allow of its being fined with isinglass or gelatine. As 
already explained, the tannin coagulates the albuminous substances, enabling them 
to act mechanically on the wine to purify and clear it. If there is insufficient 
tannin, the gelatine will, in part, remain dissolved in the wine and prove a 
source of considerable danger to it, and some white wines of the Chablis type 
are very deficient in tannin. To find out if a wine contains sufficient tannin to 
enable it to be fined, proceed as follows:—Prepare a very small amount of 
finings (as already explained, a few shreds of gelatine will do). Jill two 
tumblers of the wine to be fined, to one of which a grain or two of tannin 
dissolved in a little spirit of wine has been added. Fine both the tumblers 
with exactly the same amount of finings—say a very small teaspoonful. If 
there is no difference in the discolouration and subsequent deposit on the two 
wines, it contains sufficient tannin naturally ; but if, on the contrary, the wine 
to which the tannin has been added gives a greater discolouration and deposit, 
the tannin is deficient, and must be supplemented. ‘The test can also be made 
at the time of fining, by drawing off two tumblers of the cloudy, newly fined 
wine and adding to one some dissolved tannin, and watching the effect; if the 
wine proves deficient in tannin, it must be added without delay to precipitate 
the gelatine, which might, if left dissolved in the wine, cause alteration of its 
qualities. . 
The amount of tannin to be added to white wines will of course depend 
upon their deficiencies in that substance ; an addition of half-an-ounce to each 
20 gallons of wine should be sufficient for most wines. The tannin can be 
obtained at most druggists, and should be dissolved in the strongest spirit of 
wine procurable—4: oz. of tannin to 1 quart. An amount of spirit correspond- 
ing to the amount of tannin required should be measured off and well mixed 
with the wine to be fined. 
Recollect that the colour of wine is invariably reduced by fining, so that 
the vigneron operating on a wine which will not bear much loss of colour 
should proceed cautiously. 
