1919 Home made beverages

Wines and Wine Making

bottles. Sometimes, if the breakage, or casse, as it is termed, has not exceeded 7 or 8% by the time August is reached, he takes the chance of further loss and lets the wine remain, for with the fall in temperature, which usual- ly occurs in September and October, the energetic action of the wine ceases and the breakage also. The leaky and broken bottles are then removed from the sound ones, which are restacked and left until a yeasty substance has discontinued depositing upon their lower sides. The bottles are kept in this condition until re- quired for sale. Before, however, they are in a fit state for the purchaser, the yeasty matter has to be removed and the wine to be liqueured. The yeast is got rid of as follows: The bottles are placed necks downward, on per- forated shelves arranged in rows. A workman then seizes a bottle, and holding it in the inverted position, by a dex- terous movement discharges the yeast from the side and brings it down upon the cork. This operation, which ex- tends over some weeks, has to be repeated from time to time, until the supernatant wine is quite clear. The bot- tles are then very cautiously removed from the cellars to the corking and tying-down rooms, when they come into the hands of a workman called a disgorger. The dis- gorger, holding the bottle still neck downward, proceeds to liberate the cork by slipping off the agrafe, and when the cork is 3 parts out he quickly inverts the bottle. The cork is then forcibly ejected with a loud report by the froth which carries with it the greater part of the yeast and other solid matters, what remains of these being got rid of by the workman working his finger round the neck of the bottle, whereby they are detached and forced out by the still rising froth. The workman then places his thumb over the mouth of the bottle, which is afterward temporarily closed with an old cork. The liqueur, which is next to be added, is of very varied composition, as almost every champagne maker has his favorite and special preparation. The best liqueurs are made of some choice wine, mixed 153