Read Ebook: The Wine Press and the Cellar: A Manual for the Wine-Maker and the Cellar-Man by Rixford Emmet H Emmet Hawkins

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 231 lines and 93093 words, and 5 pages

MADEIRA.

Each compartment is provided with double doors, and after it is filled with wine, the inner door is plastered so as to stop all the cracks. In entering the estufa, only the outer door is opened, entrance through the inner one being made through a small door for the purpose. The man who examines the casks, coming out after a stay of an hour, drinks a tumblerful of wine, and cools off in a tight room provided for the purpose. From 10 to 15 per cent. of the wine is lost by evaporation while it remains in the heating house.

SHERRY.

Treading and pressing goes on nightly for fourteen hours, with occasional intervals for refreshment.

The wine from the press is invariably fermented separately from that of the first run during the treading.

All agree that the grapes are crushed without stemming, but it seems that the practice of pressing with the stems on is not uniform. General Keyes says that he made careful inquiry on this subject, and was informed that only a few of the larger stems were removed, while Mr. Vizitelli states that the sherry wine maker is so much afraid of tannin and roughness in the wine, that the stems are all removed before the pomace is pressed. This is not important, however, as the press wine is inferior, and is usually distilled.

It is almost a universal custom to sprinkle each pressing of grapes with two or three handfuls of gypsum, or from two to six pounds to a butt of wine of 130 gallons, and in wet seasons, even more. Gen. Keyes gives an instance of one wine maker who made several casks of sherry one year without the use of gypsum, and he found no material difference in the product, but he still follows the custom of the country.

As soon as the wine falls bright, which it does at any time from January to April, it is racked and placed in the bodega, with still a vacant space in the cask, and brandy is added equal to one or two per cent. to the stronger wines, and three or four per cent. to the commoner ones.

If the wine is deficient in sugar, it may clear by January, but if rich, it may not become bright till April. During the active fermentation, the bungs, of course, are left open, and in the bodega they are left loose, or laid over the hole.

Sometimes the wine is left undisturbed in the bodega until required for shipment, when it is racked, clarified, and again fortified. It is considered best, however, to rack it once a year. The wine is now well fermented, and dry, or nearly so, and the sugar that may be found in it after shipment, has been put in by adding a small quantity of sweet wine.

There are still other casks which by bad behavior, poor fermentation, or weakness, are only fit for the still.

Vizitelli says that sweet wine is used to give softness and roundness to old and pungent wines, as well as to the cruder, youthful growths, and it is remarkable how very small a quantity suffices perceptibly to modify these opposite characteristics. As little as one per cent. of dulce will impart a softness to the drier wines, which otherwise they only acquire after being several years in bottle.

Vizitelli says the arrope is mixed with nine parts of must, and fermented to make the color, but the other authors say "white wine," instead of "must."

THE SOLERA SYSTEM.

The casks are arranged in groups, piled in tiers, and the groups into scales. The distinctive feature of the system is a series, commencing with a very old wine, followed by a younger one, and so on down the scale to the youngest, so that when wine for blending and shipment is drawn from the group of casks constituting the oldest solera, they are replenished from the group of casks of the next younger solera, and these again from those of the next younger, and so on through the scale, thus keeping up the characters of the soleras.

Select the finest wines of a year's vintage, put them away by themselves, and carefully care for them and nurse them by racking, etc., during the year. The next year, separate the finest wines from the vintage, always leaving ullage in the casks of three to five gallons, according to size, and the bungs loose, simply laid over the hole. Go on in this way for five years. Now a fifth of this five-year-old wine may be drawn off for, and used to establish another solera, and the casks refilled from the four-year-old wine, which, of course, must be as nearly as possible of the same nature. With the younger wines, you may do the same, except those of one and two years old, which are not yet soleras, but young wines. You have then a solera of this five-year-old wine, which is one-fifth four-year-old wine, and this may be called the mother solera. At the end of ten years more, you can say that you have a solera fifteen years of age; though during the period, you have drawn off periodically a small portion of it and replaced it with the next younger, always providing that the younger wine is similar, for this quality is of much greater importance than the difference of a year or two in age, for wine a year or two younger or older, if of the same kind, will not injure the solera, but its character may be destroyed by mixing with it wine of a different nature.

A solera, then, really consists of a mixture of wines of different years. The head of each cask is inscribed with the distinguishing mark of its solera, and the number of butts of which it is composed.

The right blend having been ascertained, it is left for a while, and tasted once or twice to make sure that it is correct. If it does not match the sample, a little of this and that solera is added till it exactly corresponds. The blend is then entered in the blend book, which gives the number of butts required, and the amount to be taken from each solera. The book is then handed in to the bodega for the execution of the blend. Supposing it to be a ten-butt shipment, ten butts are brought into the cellar, having been most carefully examined and rinsed out with spirit. If ten jars are required from a solera of fifty butts, two jars would be drawn from each of the fifty butts of the solera, and put into the ten butts, and so on from each solera; whatever the number of butts in a solera, an equal quantity of wine is drawn from each cask.

The following samples of blends are given by Verdad:

DEFECTS AND DISEASES.

It is, therefore, wiser and more prudent, says our author, to seek to prevent the maladies of wines, than to wait for them to become diseased in order to cure them.

Of course, the wine maker should use every endeavor to remedy the natural defects of his wines. And as for the wine merchant and the consumer, they should reject all vitiated wines, unless they can be used immediately, for they lose quality instead of gaining by keeping.

Moreover, when a wine has a very pronounced defect, it can rarely be used alone, either because deficient in spirit or in color, or because the vice cannot be entirely destroyed.

It would also be a mistake to suppose that the flavor of a diseased wine would be rendered inappreciable by mixing and distributing it throughout a large number of casks of sound wine; oftener the latter would be more or less injured by the operation. The defect of such a wine should first be removed by treating it by itself, and then it should be mixed only with the commonest wine in the cellar.

Each defect and disease will be treated under its proper name, the cause indicated, with the means to be employed to prevent, diminish, or to remove it.

The doses in all cases, unless otherwise indicated, are according to Mr. Boireau, who gives what is required to treat 225 litres, but we have increased the dose to what is necessary for 100 gallons of wine in each case.

Any one can first try the experiment on a gallon or less by taking a proportional amount of the substances indicated, leaving the sample corked, in a cool place, for at least two days in ordinary cases, or for eight days in case the wine is fined.

NATURAL DEFECTS.

He instances the wines of several crops, treated by him, having a fine color, mellowness, and 10 per cent. of alcohol, which in their early years had an earthy flavor so pronounced that it might almost have been taken for a mouldy taste. This taste diminished gradually, with proper care, and finally disappeared toward the third year; the natural flavor then developed itself, and the wines acquired an agreeable bouquet in bottles.

Grapes from young vines planted in moist land, have an earthy flavor more pronounced than those from older vines, grown in the same situations, and this flavor is generally more developed in the heavy-yielding common varieties than in the fine kinds.

Great care should be taken to draw such wines from the fermenting vat, as soon as the active fermentation is finished, for a long sojourn in the tank with the stems and skins aggravates the defect.

Red wines, which in spite of this defect, have a future, and may acquire quality with age, should be racked at the beginning of winter, again in the beginning of March, and after the second racking should be fined with the whites of 12 eggs to 100 gallons of wine; they are then racked again two weeks after fining.

Common red wines, without a future, dull and poor in color, and weak in spirit, are treated in the same manner, but before fining, a little more than a quart of alcohol of 60 to 90 per cent. is added to facilitate the coagulation of the albumen.

In treating wines which are firm, full-bodied, and charged with color, after the two rackings, an excellent result is obtained by an energetic fining with about three ounces of gelatine.

Earthy white wines should be racked after completing their fermentation, and after the addition of about an ounce of tannin dissolved in alcohol, or the equivalent of tannified white wine. After racking, they should be fined with about three ounces of gelatine.

These rackings and finings precipitate the insoluble matters, and part of the coloring matter, which is strongly impregnated with the earthy taste, and the result is a sensible diminution of the flavor. When not very pronounced, it is removed little by little at each racking. But if it is very marked, the wine after the first racking should have a little less than a quart of olive oil thoroughly stirred into it. After a thorough agitation, the oil should be removed by filling the cask. The oil removes with it a portion of those matters in the wine which cause the bad flavor. The wine is afterwards fined as above.

Some writers recommend that wine having an earthy flavor should be mixed with wine of a better taste, as the best method of correcting the defect; but from what has been said in the preceding part of this chapter, it would seem to be an unsafe practice.

Greenness, as the term imports, is caused by want of maturity of the grapes. We all know that acids abound in unripe fruit, and it is only at the time of maturity, and under the influence of the heat of the sun, that they disappear and are changed into glucose or grape sugar.

A green wine, then, is an imperfect wine, which, besides this defect, generally lacks alcohol, body, mellowness, firmness, bouquet, and color, because the incompletely matured grapes contain much tartaric and malic acid, and but little grape sugar and other mucilaginous matter, and because the matters destined to give color to the skins, as well as the aromatic principles, are not completely elaborated.

The wine as it comes from the vat contains much more free tartaric acid than it contains after the insensible fermentation in the cask, because it combines with the tartrate of potash in the wine and forms the bitartrate of potash, or cream of tartar, which is deposited with the lees, or attaches itself to the sides of the cask. It follows that the wine will be less green after insensible fermentation, at the first racking, than when it was new; but if the greenness is excessive after the insensible fermentation, the wine still contains much free acid. The excess of acid may be neutralized in wines which are very green by adding the proper amount of tartrate of potash, which combines with a part of the tartaric acid to form the bitartrate, which after a few days falls to the bottom, or adheres to the cask. The dose varies from 10 to 24 ounces per 100 gallons of wine. Five or six gallons of wine are drawn out of the cask, and the tartrate of potash is thrown in by the handful, stirring the while as in the case of fining. This treatment does not always succeed; hence, the necessity of preventing the defect when possible.

When the greenness is not very marked, the wine may also be mixed with an older wine, which contains but little acid and plenty of spirit.

Lime and other alkaline substances will surely neutralize the acid, but they injure the wine and render it unhealthy, and should never be used.

Machard lays great stress upon the addition of brandy to such wines, because, he says, the alcohol will precipitate the excess of acids, and will also combine with them to form ethers which give a delicate, balsamic odor to the wine, which is most agreeable.

When wines are put into new casks, their roughness is increased by the tannin derived from the oak wood of which they are made; but during insensible fermentation a good deal of the tannin is thrown down with the vegetable albumen contained in the new wine.

The bitterness here mentioned is only that met with in new wines, and its cause is entirely different from that found in old wines, which is described further on.

An unreasonably long vatting is one of the principal causes of bitterness and stem flavor.

As long as the tumultuous fermentation continues, the crust is kept up above the surface by the bubbles of rising gas, but when it ceases, the cap falls, and settles down into the liquid, and the wine becomes impregnated with the acetic acid. The wine also, by simple contact with the crust, acquires a vinegar smell and taste.

The amount of color may be diminished if by excess of maturity the skins of the grapes decay.

The method of fermentation also influences more or less the richness of the color. Those wines, in the fermentation of which the pomace is kept constantly immersed in the liquid, dissolve out more coloring matter than those fermented in open vats in which the crust is raised above the surface of the must.

Some kinds of grapes naturally develop more color than others.

Of course, their color may be increased by mixing them with darker colored wines, but in order not to affect their natural flavor, they should be mixed only with wines of the same nature and of the same growth.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet