1919 Home made beverages

Wines and Wine Making

Ropiness, Viscidity. — This arises from the wine contain- ing too little tannin or astringent matter to precipitate the gluten, albumen or other azotized substance, occasioning the malady. £>uch wine cannot be clarified in the ordinary way because it is incapable of causing the coagulation or precipitation of the finings. The remedy is to supply the principle in which it is deficient. M. Frangois, of Nantes, prescribes for this purpose the bruised berries of the moun- tain ash in the proportion of 1 lb. to the barrel. A little catechu, kino, or, better still, rhatany, or the bruised foot- stalks of the grape, may also be conveniently and advan- tageously used in the same way. For pale white wines, which are the ones chiefly attacked by the malady, nothing equals a little pure tannin or tannic acid dissolved in proof spirit. Sparkling, Creaming and Briskness. — These properties are conveyed to wine by racking it into closed vessels be- fore the fermentation is complete and while there still re- mains a considerable portion of undecomposed sugar. Wine which has lost its briskness may be restored by add- ing to each bottle a few grains of white lump sugar or sugar candy. The bottles are afterward inverted, by which means any sediment that forms falls into the necks, when the corks are partially withdrawn and the sediment is im- mediately expelled by the elastic force of the coTmpressed carbonic acid. If the wine remains muddy a little solution of sugar and finings is added and the bottles are again placed in a vertical position, and, after two or three months, the sediment is discharged as before. To Sweeten Wine. — In 30 gal. of wine infuse a handful of the flowers of clary; then add 1 lb. of mustard seed, dry ground, put it into a bag and sink it to the bottom of the cask. Tartaric Acid in Wine, Detection of Free. — Professor Claus evaporates to a syrup and agitates with ether. If free tartaric acid is present the ether leaves on evaporation a crystalline deposit which, if dissolved in water, gives, on the addition of an alcoholic solution of potassic acetate, a 173