1919 Home made beverages

Beverages — A leoholic should be passed through the wine bag, and, when bottled, should be set apart as inferior to the rest, or the lees are collected in a cask kept for the purpose, and the clear wine resulting from their subsidence is used for filling up casks about to be fined. The coopers, to prevent breakage and loss, place each bottle, before corking it, in a small bucket or boot having a bottom made of soft cork or leather, which is strapped on the knee of the bottler. The bottlers seldom break a bottle, though they flog in the corks very hard. The bucket or boot is now very largely supplanted by a corking machine, an apparatus which first submits the cork to great pressure and then immediately afterward drives it firmly into the neck of the bottle, in which, owing to its subsequent expansion, it fits very closely and per- fectly. When the process of bottling is complete the bottles of wine are stored in a cool cellar on their sides, but on no account in an upright position. Sometimes they are placed in damp straw or in sweet, dry sawdust or sand. Cellaring. — A wine cellar should be dry at bottom and either covered with good hard gravel or be paved with flags or concrete. Its gratings or windows should prefer- ably open toward the north, and it should be sunk suffi- ciently below the surface to insure an equable tempera- ture. It should also be sufficiently removed from any public thoroughfare so as not to suffer vibration from the passing of vehicles. Should it not be in a position to main- tain a regular temperature, arrangements should be made to apply artificial heat in winter and proper ventilation in summer. The temperature should range from 55 to 65° F. For Burgundies the former temperature is the more suitable; for ports, sherries and strong wines the latter temperature. Clarification of Wines. — If the wine is not clear and bright after racking it is necessary to clarify it. There are many causes which interfere with the proper bright- ness of wine, such as changes of temperature, in careless racking and others. Some wines clear themselves, so that clarification need not be resorted to. A great many 162