The Wine Press and the Cellar: A Manual for the Wine-Maker and the Cellar-Man

by Emmet H. Rixford

The want of color is due to the mechanical action of the insoluble matters which the lees contain; these matters in precipitating carry down a part of the coloring matter remaining in solution in the liquid. It follows that the older the lees, and the oftener the wine has been drawn from them, the feebler the color.

Red Wines extracted from the lees, to be completely clarified, should be fined with a heavy dose of albumen (the whites of 16 or 18 eggs to 100 gallons), previously well beaten up in a pint of water in which half an ounce of sea salt has been dissolved to give it density. If the alcoholic strength is below nine per cent, they should be fortified by the addition of two or three quarts of brandy or alcohol to each 100 gallons. Red wines from this source should not be fined with gelatine, or it will diminish the color too much.

White Wines of this kind may be fined with albumen also, if strong in alcohol; but otherwise, they should be fined with a heavy dose of gelatine, three tablets. But before fining they must be tannified by adding 4 or 5 gallons of tannified wine, or an ounce of tannin for each 100 gallons.

Wines from lees should remain on the finings only long enough to precipitate the matters used, about ten days; after which they must be carefully racked, and cared for like other wines.

Pressing the Thick Sediment.—After the lees have undergone three or four semi-monthly rackings, the rest of the wine which they contain may be extracted by pressure, and this amounts on the average to fifty per cent. More wine might be extracted by further racking, but by allowing the wine to remain longer in contact with the finings and other sediment, it will contract the disagreeable flavors already alluded to, which may be avoided by pressing the lees after the first three or four rackings; and an excellent result is obtained by using a filter press after the first racking, and the wine obtained will have no bad taste.

The pressing is performed in small sacks about eighteen inches long. They should be made of cotton cloth, as those made from hemp, even after being used several times, give a disagreeable flavor to the wines passed through them.

It is not necessary to provide more than sacks enough for one cask of lees. The cloth of which they are made should be fine, and of close and regular texture.

To make a cheap press, one head of a cask is removed, and the pieces of this head are fastened together by nailing on two cross pieces to keep it in form, and enough of the wood around the edge is removed to allow it to pass freely into the cask as a follower. The cask is then placed upright, and a hole is bored in one of the staves close to the lower head, into which is placed a faucet. This cask, which is to contain the sacks, may be placed high enough to allow the wine to run from the faucet directly into the bung of another cask to hold the wine. If the casks containing the lees are placed on a horse or platform, the latter may be run from the faucet-hole directly into the sacks, which may be fastened to the chime with small hooks, and be kept open with the hand or a small hoop. A dish should be placed under before withdrawing the spigot. Or, to avoid fouling the outside of the sack with the lees, they may first be run into a tub, and dipped into the sacks, the tub being provided with a sack-holder. As soon as a sack is sufficiently filled, it should be strongly tied with a bow-knot which can be easily untied, and laid in the cask provided; and a few small sticks should be placed over the inner end of the faucet so that it may not be stopped by a sack coming in contact with it. Sacks are placed in the cask till it is full. The faucet is left open, so that the wine, as fast as filtered, may run through a hose into a well washed and well sulphured cask, placed in position to receive it.

When the cask is full of sacks, the cover is placed on them and they are allowed to drain for several hours, weights being gradually placed upon the cover or follower. Further pressure is applied by means of a lever rigged for the purpose, one end made firm, and the other having weights attached.

It is best that the pressure be gradually applied, leaving the sacks to drain for several hours, then applying the lever, but loading it with weights several hours later, or the next day.