Wine cask

“ The cask must be very clean and odorless. Scald it several times and then dry it in the fresh air, put in the sugar and enough water to dissolve it while shaking the cask. When the sugar is dissolved, add the strained juice. Place the cask into a place like the garret where it is warm. It will soon ferment, then remove the foam from the bunghole every morning, stir the wine with a clean wooden stick and fill in fresh water so the cask remains full. ”

“ The workman, by bearing down on the lever, or by pulling the strap at the end, tips the cask forward. When the wine has nearly all run out, it should frequently be examined by holding a small quantity to the light in a small, thin glass, and as soon as the slightest appearance of lees presents itself, the operation should cease, and none of the muddy wine should be poured into the other cask. ”

“ Why the cask?" asked the Russian. "Does the wood of the cask serve to clarify the wine?"
"I think not," answered Sonnenkamp, "but the wooden cask allows the air to penetrate, allows the wine to become ripe in the vaults, allows it to work itself pure,—in a word, to come to perfection. In vessels of clay the wine is suffocated, or, at best, experiences no change."
With great address, Bella added,—"That delights me; now I see that a progressive culture contributes to higher enjoyment even of the products of nature." ”

“ To each butt of this wine about six or seven gallons of spirit are added, while the must of other grapes have as much as twenty gallons mixed with each cask of must to check the fermentation, and keep the wine sweet. One-third of the spirit is poured in as soon as a small portion of the must has been put into the cask, a third when the cask is half full, and a third when nearly three-quarters full. The reason is obvious, as the spirit is lighter than the must, and would otherwise remain on the top. ”

“ Those vices which wines acquire after fermentation, and of which the greater part are due to want of care, or uncleanness of the casks, and they are: flatness, flowers, acidity (pricked wine) , cask flavor, mouldiness, bad flavors communicated by the accidental introduction of foreign soluble matters, ropiness, bitterness, acrity, flavor of fermentation, degeneracy, and putrid fermentation. ”

“ Your currants must be quite ripe, bruise them to a mesh with your hands, and to every quart of pulp, put the same quantity of water, mix them together in a tub, and let them stand till next day, then strain them through a hair sieve, and to each gallon, allow two pounds and a half of sugar; when the latter is quite melted, put the liquor in a cask, with a little dissolved isinglass: then to every two gallons add a pint of mountain wine; bung up the cask; when fine, draw it off. Wash the cask with a little brandy, strain the grounds through a bag, and put the whole into the cask again ”

“ The blending having been satisfactorily accomplished, the wine is stored in casks, never perfectly filled, yet with their bungholes tightly closed, and slowly continues its fermentation, eating up its sugar, purging itself, and letting fall its lees. Three months later it is fined. It is rarely kept in the wood for more than a year, though sometimes the superior qualities remain for a couple of years in cask. Occasionally it is even bottled in the spring following the vintage ”

“ Strain the liquid through a jelly-bag or fine sieve, pressing the pulp as dry as possible without allowing any of it to pass through the sieve. Add the sugar, stir occasionally until dissolved, then turn the preparation into a cask, and cover the bung-hole with a folded cloth. As soon as fermentation subsides add the brandy. Bung the cask securely, and allow it to remain undisturbed for 3 months. Rack the wine into a clean, dry cask, add the very finely-pared rind of the oranges and lemons, the barley-sugar finely-powdered, and the isinglass dissolved in a little warm water. ”

“ Before filling, however, the casks should have a double square of sulphur match burned in each, to prevent subsequent fermentations.
The use of the faucet is preferred, when the lees are thick, and the casks which contain them are near the ground, and are only used for storing lees. In the latter case, the injury to the cask by boring holes in the head at several heights, is of little consequence. A greater quantity of wine may be drawn off by the use of the faucet than with the glass siphon, but it is generally less clear than if carefully done with the latter; and one man can do the work. ”

“ Having stirred it sufficiently, pour in the remainder of the wine drawn off, until the cask is full; then stir again, skimming off the bubbles that rise to the surface. When thoroughly mixed by stirring, close the bunghole, and leave it to stand for 3 or 4 days. A cask of clarified wine will fine thirteen dozen bottles of port or sherry. The other clearing ingredients are applied in the same manner, the material being cut into small pieces, and dissolved in a quart of wine, and the cask stirred in the same manner. ”

“ The vault or cellar should be of a temperate heat, and the casks sweet and clean. Should they have an acid or musty smell, it may be remedied by burning brimstone matches in them; and if not clean, rinse them well out with cold water, and after draining rinse with a quart of brandy, putting the brandy afterwards into the ullage cask. Then strain the lees or bottoms through a flannel or linen bag. But put the bottoms of port into the ullage cask without going through the filtering bag. In racking wine that is not on the stillage, a wine-pump is desirable. ”

“ A cask is to be set on end, with the head taken out. If it formerly contained vinegar or wine, so much the better, as it will promote the fermentation, and give the cabbage a more vinous taste; if not, the inside may be rubbed over with sour kraut liquor. Caraway seeds are to be mixed with the shreds of cabbage, a good layer of salt is placed at the bottom of the cask, and then cabbage shreds evenly packed, to the [242] depth of four or six inches. The layers are regularly stamped down with a wooden stamper, to half their original bulk. ”

“ Thus the wine-merchant, after bottling off a pipe of wine, is enabled to impose on the understanding of his customers, by taking to pieces the cask, and exhibiting the beautiful dark coloured and fine crystalline crust, as an indubitable proof of the age of the wine; a practice by no means uncommon, to flatter the vanity of those who pride themselves in their acute discrimination of wines. ”

“ If putty well wrought, tar, or even yellow soap, be rubbed over the seams, and round the inner rim of the head of the cask, it will preserve it from opening. The equal temperature of the kitchen is preferred by experienced housewives to letting the vinegar stand abroad; they aver the coldness of the nights in this country is prejudicial to the process, being as speedily perfected as if it underwent no such check. By those well skilled in the manufacture of home-made wines and beer, excellent maple-wine and beer might be produced at a very trifling expense ”

“ William Penn is one of the few characters, which, wine-like, improves by age. His cask was filled with pure juices of the grape, grown in honest soils, and ripened by the natural sun. Tested in every way, it shows no adulterations. ”

“ When nearly cold, add the yeast, which must be thick and very fresh, and, the next day, put all in a dry cask with the strained lemon-juice and chopped raisins. Stir the wine every day for a fortnight; then add the brandy, stop the cask down by degrees, and in a few weeks it will be fit to bottle. ”

“ Matthew other bottles are similarly arranged, and here wine in cask is likewise stored. We pass rows of huge tuns, each holding its twelve or thirteen hundred gallons of fine reserved wine designed for blending with more youthful growths; next, are threading our way between seemingly endless piles of hogsheads filled with later vintages, and anon are passing smaller casks containing the syrup with which the vin préparé is dosed. ”

“ Take five gallons of currant juice, and put it into a ten gallon cask, with twenty pounds of Havanna, or lump sugar, fill the cask with water, let it ferment, with the bung out, for some days; as it wastes fill up with water; when done working, bung down; and in two or three months after it will be fit for use: two quarts of French brandy added, after the fermentation ceases, would improve the liquor, and communicate to it a preserving quality. Wine may be made from strawberries, raspberries, and cherries in the same way. ”

“ In the luxuriant wine-growing regions of Spain, a traveler, halting at a railway refreshment station and buying one of the sausage sandwiches that there prevail, is allowed to help himself to wine to drink on the spot without charge, but, if he fills his flask to carry away, he is subjected to an extra charge of one halfpenny. It is well known to all concerned that at vintage-time of fairly good seasons, in all countries where the grape grows freely, a good cask is worth more than the new wine it contains when filled ”

“ The grapes are simply trodden by a Hottentot, in a tub with a sort of strainer at the bottom, and then thrown—skins, stalks, and all—into vats, where the juice ferments for twice twenty-four hours; after which it is run into casks, which are left with the bung out for eight days; then the wine is drawn off into another cask, a little sulphur and brandy are added to it, and it is bunged down. Nothing can be conceived so barbarous. I have promised Mr. M— to procure and send him an exact account of the process in Spain. It might be a real service to a most worthy and amiable man. ”

“ If a large tun is to be treated, the foul air should be expelled, and a man should not enter till a light will burn in it. (See the disease, Flatness.)
Acidity will be found in the cask if it is left for several days uncared for; the alcohol contained in the wine remaining on the inside of the cask acidifies in contact with the oxygen of the air, and is soon changed into acetic acid, and the change is much more rapid in a high temperature. ”

“ Vizitelli informs us that it is considered that ports mature less perfectly when subject to the influence of the light. But like other fortified wines, exposure to the air is considered beneficial to them; and in racking, they are drawn off into a wooden pitcher holding about five gallons, and poured into the cask to be filled, coming freely in contact with the air.
All Wines of Similar Character are Blended together at the lodge, by mixing in large vats, sometimes stirred with a large fan operated by machinery. ”

“ It does not follow that a wine which shows a pretty bouquet in the primary stages will turn out well. On the contrary, it is frequently the case that the most successful wines in after years are those which at first show very little bouquet. The maturation of wine, whether it be in bottle or in cask, is an exceedingly interesting operation. The wines which remain for a long period in cask gradually lose alcohol and water by evaporation, and therefore become in time extremely concentrated as regards the solid and relatively non-volatile matters contained in them. ”

“ The wine in cask, stored in the left-hand wing, after having been duly blended in a vast vat holding over 2,400 gallons, is drawn off into bottles, which are then lowered down a shaft to the second tier of cellars by means of an endless chain, on to which the baskets of bottles are swiftly hooked. The workman engaged in this duty, in order to prevent his falling down the shaft, has a leather belt strapped round his waist, by means of which he is secured to an adjoining iron column. ”

“ The chief thing is to remove the cause, by changing the cask, for if the foreign taste and smell become very marked, they cannot be completely destroyed; they can only be rendered tolerable by mixing them with sound wines.
Ropiness is the name applied to a viscous fermentation which takes place in wine, making it slimy in appearance. It is met with more particularly in white wines, which contain albuminous matters in suspension, and but little tannin. It is not a very serious difficulty, for it can be easily corrected. ”

“ If the sherry be new and hot, rack it off into a sweet cask, add five gallons of mellow Lisbon, which will take off the hot taste, then give it a head, take a quart of honey, mix it with a can of wine, and put it into the cask when racking. ”

“ Of course, careful men must be in attendance to watch the operation, and close the faucet as soon as the cask is filled, and immediately transfer the hose to an empty one, so that the wine may not run over and waste. ”

“ The cement keeps the temperature remarkably cool in the lower cellier where wine in cask is stored, the upper cellier being appropriated to wine in racks sur pointe, bales of corks, and the wicker-baskets and cases in which the wine is packed.
The preparation of the wines in cask and the bottling take place in the lower of the two celliers, a mere lad being enabled, by the aid of the mechanism provided, to bottle from six to eight thousand bottles a day. A single workman can cork about 4,500 bottles, which a second workman secures with metal agrafes before they are lowered into the cellars. ”