Or the marc may be pressed and put into barrels, keeping it in as solid a mass as possible; the surface is then covered with sand and the casks closed air-tight. Piquette may then be made as needed, using the marc of one cask, washing with water till it is exhausted.
2. The Fermented Marc of Red Wine is treated as follows: After pressing, it is immediately put into a large vat. Double its weight of water is added, and after a complete stirring, it is allowed to macerate one or two days at most. The first piquette is then drained off, and water is put in several times till the soluble matters are removed.
Pressed marc is also used for forage, mixing it with half the quantity of hay.
As for making wine from marc by adding sweetened water. (See [Watering and Sugaring Must].)
The following method of washing the marc is from an article on the Distillation of Marc, by J. Pezeyre, printed in Le Parfait Vigneron, Almanach du Moniteur Vinicole, 1881:
Six vats or barrels are set up side by side, each provided with a faucet, and a movable cover. The faucet is protected inside, as in the case of the ordinary fermenting vat.
To thoroughly exhaust the marc, it should be washed with six times its weight of water, or 100 lbs. of pomace require 72 gallons of water.
The vats being arranged, are charged with marc, which is pressed down till it fills the vat to within about ten inches of the top. The marc is kept submerged in the usual way, by a false, perforated head.
The first vat is filled with cold water, and left to rest for two hours. The liquid is then drawn off and filled into vat No. 2. No. 1 is then refilled with fresh water. When the liquid in No. 2 has remained for two hours, it is drawn off and put into No. 3. No. 1 is then emptied into No. 2, and filled with water a third time. The maceration in No. 3 having continued for two hours, its liquid is drawn off and poured into No. 4; No. 3 is filled from No. 2, and this from No. 1, which is filled the fourth time with water. No. 5 is filled from No. 4, and each vat is filled from the preceding one, until No. 1 has received in water six times the weight of the marc contained in it.
The liquid from No. 5 is poured into No. 6, and after two hours is drawn from this last vat into the still.