1919 Home made beverages

Wines and Wine Making

it remains for 6, 12 or 18 hours, according to the tempera- ture. At the end of this time certain vegetable matters that would damage the taste of the ensuing wine, as well aa render it liable to a second fermentation, become de- posited. Directly the must has cleared it is run into small barrels of 200 liters capacity, in which it undergoes fer- mentation. Sometimes the clearing of the juice is accom- plished by filtration; at others, when the weather is warm and fermentation sets in so rapidly as not to allow the impurities to subside, it is run into casks filled with the fumes from burning sulphur. By this means the ex- cessive fermentative action is arrested and sufficient time is given for the dregs to settle. The juice having been made clear by either of the above methods is drawn into barrels, which are arranged in rows in the cellars. The barrels are rilled to the bung, the froth, which is formed during the fermentation flowing out at the bungholes. In some wine-making establishments the barrels are tight- ly bunged up, there being previously added to the con- tents 1% of brandy. The casks are opened at the end of December an,d the wine fined by means of isinglass, this operation being conducted at the lowest possible tempera- ture. If, at the end of a fortnight, it has not become bright, it is left for another fortnight, and then, if not clear, it undergoes a second fining. The fining process must be used with caution; when overdone it diminishes and frequently stops the activity of the subsequent fer- mentation. To obviate this the wine should be judiciously exposed to the air and a minute quantity of yeast added to each hogshead before it is bottled. When the wine has cleared, before being bottled, cane sugar is added to it, since the quantity of undecomposed natural sugar in the wine is not sufficient to furnish the requisite amount of carbonic-acid gas, the ingredient to which champagne owes its effervescent properties. Champagne bottles constitute a very considerable item in the trade expenses of the wine maker. He pays the 151