1868 The complete Practical Distiller

THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL DISTILLER.

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with greater advantage be transformed into fluid wines than lees. This consideration will call forth the necessity of treat- ing separately on the distillation of these wines, and on the apparatus suitable to them. In regard to lees, it has already been seen that these wines proceed from the fermentation of the waste of the raisin, such as the stalks, skins, and kernels, with water, either resulting from wine with which they have already fermented, or proceeding from the separation of the must by means of the press. The fermentable matter which this waste still contains in this state, particularly when it has already undergone fermentation, is evidently that which has been separated by the press, and which, being still enclosed in the cells of the fruit, has thus escaped alcoholic decomposition. This fact again proves what has been said before on the imperfection of the operation of pressing; and, in- deed, if this operation could be executed with the same degree of practical perfection which is obtained in a great number of other manufacturing operations, the prepara- tion of plquette and of lees-wines might, without prejudice, be neglected. It is true, that in this case the distillation of grounds or lees could not be dispensed with ; for, admitting even the perfection of the operations of pressing, it would be necessary to separate the alcohol which the grounds still contain in tolerably large quantities, when, after having fermented with the must, they are separated from it by the press. But if the difficulty were thus not completely removed,