1857 The Bordeaux wine and liquor dealers' guide

26

A TREATISE ON

and what liquor fiows after is called wine of the se– cond 01' third cuttings. "The great wine-press is capable of making no less than twen'l!y-.fove pi,eces of wine in fowr hours• . Where vineyards are extensive, as it is desirable to press the produce of the gathering in one day, however large in quantity, this press is useful; but it is the instrument of making a large quantity of secondary wine, rather than a little of a choice character, and is used principally by the larger vine-growers. There is only one species of wine which is made without beating, treading, or pressing; this is what they call in Spain lagrima. The grapes, melting with ripeness, are suspended in bunches, and the wine is the produce of the droppings. This can only be effected with the muscatel grape of the warm south. In this way the richest :Malaga is made. In Cyprus the grapes are beaten with mallets, on an inclined plane, with the reservoir at the end." (Wonders of the World.) After the juice is thus prepared, the next step is the process of Fermentation, which, according to Liebig, is the decomposition of a substance containing no nitro– gen, or a metamorphoeis by the elements of a com- , plex molecule group themselves, so as to form more intimate and stable components, whose action de– pends upon the joint influence of warmth, air, and

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