5. The moldiness of wine is a disease in which mold-plants are produced on the surface of the wine. How or under what conditions the mold is formed, is not known, except that the admission of air is favorable to the disease.
For further information on this subject, we may refer, inter alia, to Henderson's History of Ancient and Modern Wines, Bence Jones's translation of Mulder's Chemistry of Wine, and to the recent works of Shaw and Denman, in English; to those of Julien, Chaptal, Faure (1844), and Batilliat, in French ; and to those of Ritter, Balling, Von Babo, Bronner, etc., in German; also to the chief works on technological chemistry in all languages.
Manufactum--The mode of manufacturing wine varies in its details in different i countries. Pagnierre, his treatise On the Wines of Bordeaux, gives the de scription of the manufacture of the superior clarets. The grapes, after being gathZred are picked; all that are likely to injure the quality of the wine being carefully removed: A principal vat of the bestfruit, which is called the mother-cask (cure-mere), is then made, into which, after picking, the workmen continue to put the best grapes, without their stalks, and without treading them, till they are from 15 to 20 in. deep; after which they throw about two gallons of old cognac or armagnac upon them, and then another bed of pie. i picked grapes, more by two gallons ore of brandy, and so on till the vat is full. Spirit of wine is then added, about four gallons being used for a wine-vat of from 30 to 30 tons. The amount of brandy and spirits that is added varies with the quality. of the vintage, the better vintages requiring the less spirit. When there is a deficiency of saccharine matter in the grapes, starch-sugar is sometimes added. The when i hen fi lied, is closed and well covered. ith blankets to prevent the entrance of air, and is left in this state for about a month. A small cock or tap is placed in the side of the vat at about a third of its depth from the bottom, iu order to allow of the progress of fermentation being observed ; and to enable the manufacturer to know when the wine, having become cool and sufficiently clear, may be racked off and put into casks, pre viously prepared by scalding and rinsing with a little spirit. While the is at
work, the ordinary vintage goes on as follows: The grapes are trodden or acted on by machinery in the press, and put with their stalks into the vats, when the fermentation takes place naturally. About a foot of the upper part of the vat is not filled, in order to leave space for the fermentation, which in very mature vintages sometimes occasions an overflow of these limits. The term chapeau is applied to the floating mass of stalks, seeds, and skins on the surface. The vats are lightly covered, and in from a week to a' fortnight the wine is ready for being drawn off; for if it is left upon the lees (marre), or in contact with its crust (chapeau), it would take the disagreeable taste of the stalks. The barrels in which it is then placed are filled to about two-thirds or three-fourths, after which the is emptied, and its wine is poured in equal portions into these casks so as to fill them; and the remainder is used to replace every week what is lost by evaporation, or may have leaked aivay. All proprietors have not the means of making a cure-mere; but in its absence, and with the employment of small vessels, wine of an inferior character is produced. The casks being full, are left unbunged for about a week, the bung-hole being in the meantime covered with a brick or piece of wood. They are filled up every two days, and after bunging, at least once a week, till the wine is in a state to allow the cask to rest with the bung-hole at the side, which is not till after a year and a half.
White wines are made in a somewhat different manner. The grapes are not, as in. making red wine, put into the vat to ferment, but after the removal of the stalks, they are trodden, and when taken from the press, the juice, skins, and seeds are put into casks, in which the fermentation takes place, and wine is formed. When the fermenta tion has ceased, the wine is racked off from the barrels into smaller casks; and any loss that subsequently occurs from evaporation must be replaced once or twice a week.