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1 Jan., 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 35 
Another receipt is:—Pour a bucket of boiling water into the cask, and 
_ then, with care, pour in a bottle of sulphuric acid, roll for an hour, then empty 
and rinse with cold water several times. 
For strong dry wines like sherry, the must should be of high density, and 
fortified towards the end of the fermentation with from 2 to 5 per cent. of the 
best and strongest spirit of wine procurable, of pure taste and smell, and a 
second fortifying should be given later on. 
The must is not vatted, but run through the mill into the press, and then 
put into the fermentation casks. The acidity of the must need not be increased, 
but remain as low as 5 or 6 per mille, as bacterial developments are not to be 
feared if the must is fermented in small bulk without the husks, and cleanliness 
has been observed in all the operations. A higher acidity than 6 per mille 
would be out of place in a sherry. Many varieties of vines are grown in the 
Xeres district for sherry-making, but of those imported last year by this 
Department only the Pedro survived, through bad packing. A fresh lot of 
Polomino has been ordered, which, with the Albillo, form the main crop of the 
Xeres vineyards. 
The writer takes this opportunity of observing that all his suggestions and 
recommendations are directed to those who make their wines from the pure 
juice of the grape, and they do not apply to the sugar-and-water concoctions of 
some. The circumstances are quite different in the latter case, and the ordinary 
rules of wine-making do not apply to them. 
SWEET WINES. 
The method ordinarily adopted in Queensland for making sweet white and 
red wines—z.e., adding a quantity of cane-sugar to the must—is to be deplored, 
as the wines can never be of good quality ; they are sickly and cloying, and the 
alcohol and ethers developed by the fermenting cane-sugar affect the head and 
the stomach. The methods adopted by all wine-making countries for the 
production of sweet wines are :— 
1. Partial desiccation of the fruit by torsion of the stalk or exposure to 
the sun for a few days on mats. 
2. Addition to the must of concentrated juice to raise its density. 
8. Checking the fermentation by addition of alcohol, which leaves a 
certain amount of grape-sugar undecomposed in the wine. 
The first method produces far and away the finest wines, but is trouble- 
some and too costly for Australia. 
The second makes good sweet wines if care is taken to avoid burning or 
scorching the must in the concentration. 
The third is easy, and makes excellent sweet wines, but can only be 
adopted by those who have a still. — 
* Whatever excuse there may be for those who sweeten their wines with 
cane-sugar, who do not possess a still, there is none for those who, having a 
still, continue to do so. If the vigneron will try the effect of checking the 
fermentation with spirit, he will not use cane-sugar again. 
The amount of alcohol to be added to the must entirely depends on its 
density, and on the strength of the spirit. It may be taken that under 
ordinary circumstances fermentation will decompose 26 per cent. of grape- 
Sugar in must; if there is more than 26 per cent., the wine will be sweet in 
proportion to the amount of undecomposed sugar. European sweet wines of 
the Muscat and Malvasia class contain 10 to i5 per cent. of undecomposed 
sugar, with a strength of from 27 to 29 degrees of proof spirit. T£, therefore, 
a sweet wine is to be made from grapes partially dried or from must sweetened 
with concentrated must, it should have 26° + 10° = 36° or 26° + 15° = 41° of 
density before fermentation, which will transform 26 degrees of sugar into 
27 degrees of spirit, leaving 10 to 15 degrees of undecomposed sugar in the 
wine. 
