CHAPTER XVI.
WINE IN BOTTLES.
When Ready for Bottling.—Wines should not be bottled till their insensible fermentation is entirely completed, have become entirely freed from deposits, excess of color, salts, and ferments, and have become perfectly bright. If they are bottled before these conditions are fulfilled, deposits are made in the bottles, the wines may contract bitterness and a taste of the lees, and if fermentation is violent, the bottles may burst. When they are bottled too young they are sure to deposit, and then they must be decanted.
The Length of Time that They Require to Remain in Wood before being ready for bottling, depends upon the strength and quality of the wines, and the conditions under which they are kept.
Weak wines, feeble in color and spirit, mature rapidly, while firm, full-bodied wines, rich in color and alcohol, require a longer time to become sufficiently ripe to admit of bottling.
The older writers say that wines should not be put into glass until they have become fully ripe, and have become tawny (if red), and have developed a bouquet. But Boireau says that this is not the proper practice. He says that wine is fit for bottling when freed from its sediment, and when there is hardly any deposit formed in the cask at the semi-annual racking—when its color is bright, and it has lost its roughness or harshness, which it possesses while young, and at the same time preserves its mellowness. If left in the cask till a bouquet is developed, wines will often be found to be in a decline by the time they are bottled, and will not keep as long as those bottled previous to the development of their bouquet, and while they still possess their fruity flavor. But greater precautions must be taken to insure their limpidity, or they will be liable to deposit heavily in the bottle. And Machard, who indicates aroma and color as signs of proper maturity, though laying more stress upon the taste, says that it is always better to be a little too soon than to wait till the wine passes the point.
Some wines are fit for the bottle at one year old, others require to be kept from two to six years, and some even ten years, or longer, in wood. White wine, generally speaking, matures earlier than red.
How Prepared for Bottling.—Although a wine may appear perfectly limpid to the eye, yet, when bottled, it may make a considerable deposit, and therefore, the only safety is to carefully rack and fine it to get rid of the insoluble matters in suspension. If it is not clear after one fining, it must be drawn off and the process repeated. When fined and cleared, it is better to rack again into a cask slightly sulphured, and allow it to rest for three or four weeks before drawing into the bottles; for if drawn from a cask still containing the finings, the sediment is liable to be stirred up by the movement of the liquid. If this is not done, the faucet should be fixed in place at the time of fining and before the wine has settled, and at the same time the cask should be slightly inclined forward and blocked in that position, and other precautions must be taken not to disturb the cask after the wine has cleared. If the wine is too feeble to allow of fining without injury, and one is sure of its perfect limpidity, the fining had better be dispensed with. Very young wines may be bottled after subjecting them to repeated finings, but it will deprive them of some of their good qualities. (See [Fining].) It often happens that a well-covered, or dark-colored wine will deposit considerable color in the bottle after one fining; such wine should be twice fined, and twice racked before fining, say, once in December or January, and again in March.
The Most Favorable Time for Bottling is during cool, dry weather, but in cellars of uniform temperature, it may be done at any time. It is better, if possible, to avoid warm or stormy weather, and those critical periods in the growth of the vine referred to in the chapter on Racking. Of course, the wine should not be bottled if it shows signs of fermentation.
Fig. 27.
