USE OF THE HUSKS AND LEES.
These should be distilled, and will make a very strong, fine flavored brandy. The husks are put into empty barrels or vats—stamped down close, and a cover of clay made over them, to exclude the air. They will thus undergo a fermentation, and be ready for distillation in about a month. They should be taken fresh from the press, however; for if they come into contact with the air, they will soon become sour and mouldy. The lees can be distilled immediately. Good fresh lees, from rather astringent wines are also an excellent remedy when the wine becomes flat, as before described.
DR. GALL'S AND PETIOL'S METHOD OF WINE MAKING.
The process of wine making before described, however, can only be applied in such seasons, and with such varieties of grapes, that contain all the necessary elements for a good wine in due proportion. For unfavorable seasons, with such varieties of grapes as are deficient in some of the principal ingredients, we must take a different course—follow a different method. To see our way clearly before us in this, let us first examine which are the constituent parts of must or grape juice. A chemical analysis of must, shows the following result:
Grape juice contains sugar, water, free acids, tannin, gummy and mucous substances, coloring matter, fragrant or flavoring substances, (aroma bouquet). A good wine should contain all these ingredients in due proportion. If there is an excess of one, and a want of the other, the wine will lose in quality. Must, which contains all of these, in due proportion, we call normal must, and only by determining the amount of sugar and acids in this so-called normal must, can we gain the knowledge how to improve such must, which does not contain the necessary proportion of each. The frequent occurrence of unfavorable seasons in Europe, when the grapes did not ripen fully, and were sadly deficient in sugar, set intelligent men to thinking how this defect could be remedied; and a grape crop, which was almost worthless, from its want of sugar, and its excess of acids, could be made to yield at least a fair article, instead of the sour and unsaleable article generally produced in such seasons. Among the foremost who experimented with this object in view I will here name Chaptal, Petiol; but especially Dr. Ludwig Gall, who has at last reduced the whole science of wine-making to such a mathematical certainty, that we stand amazed only, that so simple a process should not have been discovered long ago. It is the old story of the egg of Columbus; but the poor vintners of Germany, and France, and we here, are none the less deeply indebted to those intelligent and persevering men for the incalculable benefits they have conferred upon us. The production of good wine is thus reduced to a mathematical certainty; although we cannot in a bad season, produce as high flavored and delicate wines, as in the best years, we can now always make a fair article, by following the simple rules laid down by Dr. Gall. When this method was first introduced, it was calumniated and despised—called adulteration of wine, and even prohibited by the governments of Europe; but, Dr. Gall fearlessly challenged his opponents to have his wines analyzed by the most eminent chemists; which was repeatedly done, and the results showed that they contained nothing but such ingredients which pure wine should contain; and since men like Von Babo, Dobereiner and others have openly endorsed and recommended gallizing, prejudice is giving way before the light of scientific knowledge.
But to determine the amount of sugar and acids contained in the must we need a few necessary implements. These are:
THE MUST SCALE OR SACCHAROMETER.
