1919 Home made beverages

Chapter XIX. WINES AND WINE MAKING THE grapes are not removed from the vine until they are quite ripe. As the maturation not only of dif- ferent varieties, but of the same kind, is dependent upon the season, no stated period can be fixed for the commence- ment of the vintage. The grapes are ready to be gathered when the white kind becomes of a brownish yellow color and the red or blue very dark purple or nearly black. Shears, pruning knives or scissors are used for the removal of the fruit from the vine. In making the finer wines, previous to being pressed, the bunches are carefully examined, and any unripe or damaged grapes are picked off and used to make inferior wine, or in the gathering the unripe specimens are left on the branch to ripen. The blue and dark varieties, when intended for the best wines, are, with few exceptions, re- moved from the stalks before being pressed; the white grapes are pressed with the stalks. Except with those grapes which produce wines that are likely to become viscous or ropy, the stalks are not left for any length of time in contact with the grape juice or must. There are various modes of separating the grapes from the stalks. One method consists in the employment of a wooden fork or trident }/% yd. or more in length. By turning this round in a wooden pail filled with the fruit the grapes become detached from the stalks, which are thus brought to the surface and removed. In another contrivance the separation is effected by inclosing the bunches in cages made of parallel wires. 145 '