1891 Drinks à La Mode by Mrs de Salis

DRINKS A LA MODE

72

moved. A principal vat of the best fruit, which is called cuve-mere^ is then made, into which, after packing, the workmen continue to put the best grapes without their stalks and without treading them, till they are from fifteen to twenty inches deep, after which they throw about two gallons of old cognac upon them, and then another bed of picked grapes, followed by two gallons more of brandy, and so on till the vat is full. About four gallons of spirit of wine is then added for a wine- vat from thirty to thirty-six tuns. When there is a deficiency of saccharine matter in the grapes starch-sugar is sometimes added. The cuve-viere when filled is closed and well covered with blankets to prevent the entrance of air, and is left in this state for about a month. A small cock or tap is placed in the side of the vat at about a third of its depth from the bottom, in order to allow of the progress of fermentation being observed, and to enable the manufacturer to know when the wine, having become cool and sufficiently clear, may be racked off and put into casks. While the cuve-mere is at work the ordinary vintage goes on as follows : The grapes are trodden or acted on by machinery in the press and put with their stalks into the vats ; then the fermenta- tion takes place naturally. About a foot of the upper part of the vat is not filled, in order to leave space for the fermentation, which in very mature vintages sometimes occasions an overflow of these limits. The term chapeau is applied to the floating mass of stalks lightly covered, and in from a week to a fortnight the wine is ready for being drawn off, for if it is left upon the lees (marre) or in con- tact with its crust (chapeau) it would take the dis-