White Wines may sometimes be mixed with advantage with red ones, as before mentioned, but the former should not be employed too liberally.
Diseased Wines must not be mixed with sound ones, except in the few cases mentioned under Defects and Diseases. It is especially dangerous to cut a soured or pricked wine with a sound one, for the whole mass is liable to be lost.
Mixing Grapes.—It is doubtless always better, when practicable, to correct defects by mixing the grapes and fermenting the different kinds together, for then a more homogeneous wine will be formed; and, therefore, the intelligent grape grower will find out the defects of his wine, and remedy them by planting a sufficient quantity of other varieties for the purpose.
Precautions.—Care, however, must always be taken not to spoil a good wine by cutting it with a very common one, nor by mixing poor varieties with grapes of fine kinds.
Cheap wines, however, for immediate consumption, may admit a certain proportion of poor, common wine, into their composition, without inconvenience. In that case, the ferments of the common sorts will not have time to act and produce serious results.
If, however, they are to be kept for some time, or bottled, the effect will be bad, for the ferments always abundant in wines from the commoner varieties, are liable to become decomposed, and cause a disagreeable, nauseating flavor.
Whenever there is a doubt in the mind of the cellar-man as to whether certain wines should be mixed, it is always best to make a small sample first, clarify it, and leave it for a sufficient length of time, and judge of the result, before operating upon a large quantity.
CHAPTER XVIII.
WINE LEES, MARC, AND PIQUETTE.
The Residue of Wine Making, pomace and lees, are often placed immediately in the still, and their alcohol distilled off directly, but the result is better if the wine is first extracted, and distilled without putting the residue into the boiler, for it is liable to burn and give a disagreeable burnt flavor to the brandy.
I am indebted to Mr. Boireau, so often quoted, for what follows: