and rinse with
a decoction of vine leaves, or with warm wine. Then rinse once more
with cold water, and it will be fully prepared to receive the must.
This is also to be observed with old casks, which have become, by
neglect or otherwise, mouldy, or have a peculiar tang.

MAKING THE WINE.

As we have our apparatus all prepared now, we can commence the
operation itself. This can be done in different ways, according to the
class of wine we are about to make.

To make white, or light-colored wine, the grapes which were gathered
and mashed during the day, can be pressed and put into the cask the
following night. To mash them, we place the mill above one of the
fermenting vats, mashing them as quick as they are carried or hauled to
the press-house. The vat is simply covered with a cloth during the day.
If the season has been good, the must will make good wine without the
addition of anything else. In poor seasons it will be necessary to add
water and sugar, to improve its quality, but I will speak of this
method in a separate chapter. In the evening, the must which will run
off, is first drawn from the vat, and by some kept separate; but I
think, it makes, upon the whole, a better wine, if the pressing is
added to it. The husks, or mashed grapes, are then poured upon the
press, and pressed until fully dry. To accomplish this the press is
opened several times, and the edges of the cake, or "cheese," as some
call it, are cut off with an axe or cleaver and put on top, after which
they are pressed down again. The casks are then filled with the must;
either completely, if it is intended that the must should ferment
_above_, as it is called, or _under_, when the cask is not completely
filled, so that the husks, which the must will throw up, will remain in
the cask. Both methods have their advantages, but I prefer the former,
with a very simple contrivance, to exclude the air, and also prevent
waste. This is a siphon or tin tube, bent in the form of a double
elbow, of which one end fits tightly in the bung hole, and the other
empties into a dish of water, to be set on one end of the cask, through
which the gas escapes, as shown in Fig. 30.

We should, however in pressing, be guided somewhat by the weather. In
warm weather fermentation will commence much sooner, and be more
violent, than when the weather is cold. Consequently we should press
much sooner in warm weather, than when the air is cool. Late in the
fall, it is somet