Sparkling wines

—In the manufacture of these, black grapes of the first quality are usually employed, especially those gathered upon the vine called by the French noirien , cultivated on the best exposures. As it is important, however, to prevent the colouring-matter of the skin from entering into the wine, the juice should be squeezed as gently and rapidly as po ible. The liquor obtained by a second and third pre ing is reserved for inferior wines, on account of the reddish tint which it acquires. The marc is then mixed with the grapes of the red-wine vats. The above nearly colourle must, is immediately poured into tuns or casks, till about three-fourths of their capacity are filled, when fermentation soon begins. This is allowed to continue under the control of the elastic bung, above mentioned, for about 15 days, and then three-fourths of the casks are filled up with wine from the rest. The casks are now closed by a bung secured with a piece of hoop iron nailed to two contiguous staves. The casks should be made of new wood, but not of oak—though old white wine casks are occasionally used. In the month of January the clear wine is racked off, and is fined by a small quantity of isingla di olved in old wine of the same kind. Forty days afterwards a second fining is required. Sometimes a third may be useful, if the lees be considerable. In the month of May the clear wine is drawn off into bottles, taking care to add to each of them a small measure of what is called liquor , which is merely about 3 per cent. of a syrup made by di olving sugar-candy in white wine. The bottles being filled, and their corks secured by packthread and wire, they are laid on their sides, in this month, with their mouths sloping downwards at an angle of about 20 degrees, in order that any sediment may fall into the neck. At the end of 8 or 10 days, the inclination of the bottles is increased, when they are slightly tapped, and placed in a vertical position; so that after the lees are all collected in the neck, the cork is partially removed for an instant, to allow the sediment to be expelled by the pre ure of the gas. If the wine be still muddy in the bottles, along with a new dose of liquor , a small quantity of fining should be added to each, and the bottles should be placed again in the inverted position. At the end of two or three months, the sediment collected over the cork, is dexterously discharged; and if the wine be still deficient in transparency, the same proce of fining must be repeated. Sparkling wine ( vin mou eux ), prepared as above described, is fit for drinking usually at the end of from 18 to 30 months, according to the state of the seasons. It is in Champagne that the lightest, most transparent, and most highly flavoured wines, have been hitherto made. The breakage of the bottles in these sparkling wines amounts frequently to 30 per cent., a circumstance which adds greatly to their cost of production. Weak wines of bad growths ought to be consumed within 12 or 15 months after being manufactured; and should be kept meanwhile in cool cellars. White wines of middling strength ought to be kept in casks constantly full, and carefully excluded from contact of air, and the racking off should be done as quickly as po ible. As the most of them are injured by too much fermentation, this proce should be so regulated as always to leave a little sugar undecomposed. It is useful to counteract the absorption of oxygen, and the consequent tendency to acidity, by burning a sulphur match in the casks into which they are about to be run. This is done by hooking the match to a bent wire, kindling and suspending it within the cask through the bung-hole. Immediately on withdrawing the match, the cask should be corked, if the wine be not ready for transfer. If the burning sulphur be extinguished on plunging it into the cask, it is a proof of the cask being unsound, and unfit for receiving the wine; in which case it should be well cleansed, first with lime-water, then with very dilute sulphuric acid, and lastly with boiling water. Wine-cellars ought to be dry at bottom, floored with flags, have windows opening to the north, be so much sunk below the level of the adjoining ground as to po e a nearly uniform temperature in summer and winter; and be at such a distance from a frequented highway or street as not to suffer vibration from the motion of carriages. Wines should be racked off in cool weather; the end of February being the fittest time for light wines. Strong wines are not racked off till they have stood a year or eighteen months upon the lees, to promote their slow or insensible fermentation. A syphon well managed serves better than a faucet to draw off wine clear from the sediment. White wines, before being bottled, should be fined with isingla ; red wines are usually fined with whites of eggs beat up into a froth, and mixed with two or three times their bulk of water. But some strong wines, which are a little harsh from exce of tannin, are fined with a little sheep or bullock’s blood. Occasionally a small quantity of sweet glue is used for this purpose. The following maladies of wines , are certain accidental deteriorations, to which remedies should be speedily applied.