1919 Home made beverages

Wines and Wine Making

Wine presses are of various patterns. In many wine-making establishments iron presses have supplanted wooden ones, over which they possess the ad- vantages of greater cleanliness and non-absorption of the must. The wine press in general use in the Gironde con- sists of a tall, round basket, made of perpendicular laths. The fruit is placed in this basket, and upon the fruit a wooden block, to which a screw is attached; a nut works upon the screw from above downward and presses the wooden block upon the fruit, the liquid from which is forced out through the laths and collected. In the manufacture of champagne and some red wines, very powerful presses are employed, but these possess the objection of pressing the fixed oil from the pips and an unpleasantly tasting juice from the stalks, and thereby damaging the product. In some establishments centrif- ugal machines have been used, not only with the result of yielding a better wine, but of effecting a considerable gain in time and labor. The must, being received into proper receptacles, next undergoes the vinous fermentation. In the case of white wines the must is kept separate from that subsequently procured by submitting the husks, pips and stalks to ad- ditional pressure, and is sold as the first or superior wine. But with red wines the husks (and in some cases the marc) are thrown into the fermenting vat, by which means the wine acquires an additional amount of coloring matter. In this case, when the completed wine is drawn off, the husks are again pressed, and the wine so obtained added to the first instalment. As the tannic acid is derived from the skins and seeds of the grape, wines prepared in this manner usually contain a considerable amount of this substance. The fermentation is conducted in different countries at different temperatures, and, of course, with different re- sults. When must is fermented at 15 to 20° C. (59 to 68° F.) it yields a wine strong in alcohol, but wanting in bou- quet; while if the fermentation be carried on at 5-±o 15° 147