STEMMING. CRUSHING, AND PRESSING. Grapes whose tannin content is low, and especially fully mature or over-ripe grapes. are often pressed without stemming. The kind and quality of wine to he made also helps to decide whether or not stemming shall he performed. For high-grade wines the berries are often picked by hand; for ordinary grades. and particularly iu old-fash ioned practice. they are removed by wicker-work or galvanized iron combs or screens against which the clusters are worked by hand; in modern prac tice, prevalent in California and somewhat used in the Gironde. steam power steamers are used. and some of these can stem more than 300 pounds of grapes a minute. For white wines the fruit is pressed (usually without stemming) and the juice fermented; for increasing the body and astringency it is crushed and allowed to ferment more or less before the must is removed for fur ther fermentation; for red wines this is the usual practice, since it secures the required color from the skins in the solvent action of the alcohol formed during fermentation. According as a red or a white wine is desired the grapes in modern establishments are transferred by an endless chain from the storage rooms to a steaming ma chine or to an endless press. Sometimes a cen
trifugal machine is used for obtaining the juice from the crushed fruit. In some localities, how ever, the ancient method of treading the grapes with clogs or sandals or kneading with wooden pestles is still in operation, the claims being that it. secures an amount of saccharine matter equal to that obtained by the recent process without crushing the stems or the unripe berries. Usu ally the 'first run.' the juice that flows naturally from the crushed grapes, is treated separately from the 'm.cond run,' which is pressed out. The exhausted pomace may be treated with water, sugar, etc.. for making inferior wines, brandy, or vinegar. In white-wino making the more perfect presses obtain from 60 to SO per cent. o• even more of the juice of the fruit, depending largely upon the kind of grape, whether watery or pulpy: in red-wine making they often seeure more than 85 per cent.. the pulp and skins having been acted upon by fermentation prior to pressing.