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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: VIR-WAT |
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VITICULTURE AND WINE-MAKING General Considerations.Although the wine is cultivated in practically every part of the world possessing an appropriate climate and soil, from California in the West to Persia in the East, and from Germany in the North to the Cape of Good Hope and some of the South American republics in the South, yet, as is the case also with the cereal crops and many fruits and vegetables, the wines produced in countries possessing temperate climates are-when the vintage is successfulfiner than those made in hot or semi-tropical regions. Although, for instance, the wines of Italy, Greece, the Cape, &c., possess great body
the vintage, i.e. on the weather conditions preceding and during the gathering of the grapes and the subsequent fermentation. Of all these factors, that of the nature of the soil on which the vine is grown is perhaps the most important. The same vine, ex-posed to practically identical conditions of climate, will produce markedly different wines if planted in different soils. On the other hand, different varieties of the vine, provided they are otherwise not unsuitable, may, if planted in the same soil, after a time produce wines which may not differ seriously in character. Thus the planting of French and German vines in other countries (e.g. Australia, the Cape) has not led to the production of directly comparable wines, although there may at first have been some general resemblance in character. On the other hand, the re-planting of some of the French vineyards (after the ravages due to the phylloxera) with American vines, or, as was more generally the case, the grafting of the old French stock on the hardy
11'ine-snaking.The art of wine-making is, compared with the manufacture of beer or spirits, both in principle and in practice a relatively simple operation. When the grapes have attained to maturity they are collected by hand and then transferred in baskets or carts to the press house
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bright . At this stage it receives its first racking. Racking consists merely in separating the bright wine from the deposit. The wine is racked into clean casks, and this operation is repeated at intervals of some months, in all three to four times. As a general rule, it is not possible by racking alone to obtain the wine in an absolutely bright condition. In order to bring this about, a further operation, namely that of fining, is necessary. This consists, in most cases, in adding to the wine proteid matter in a finely divided state. For this purpose isinglass, gelatin or, in the case of high-class red wines, white of egg is employed. The proteid matter combines with a part of the tannin in the wine, forming an insoluble tannate, and this gradually subsides to the bottom of the cask, dragging with it the mechanically suspended matters which are the main cause of the wine's turbidity. In some cases purely mechanical means such as the use of Spanish clay or filtration are employed for fining purposes. Some wines, particularly those which lack acid or tannin, are very difficult to fine. The greatest care is necessary to ensure the cleanliness and asepticity of the casks in which wine is stored or into which it is racked. The most common method of ensuring cask cleanliness is the operation known as " sulphuring." This consists in burning a portion of a sulphur "match" (i.e. a flat wick which has been steeped in melted sulphur, or simply a stick of melted sulphur) in the interior of the cask. The sulphurous acid evolved destroys such micro-organisms as may be in the cask, and in addition, as it reduces the supply of oxygen, renders the wine less prone to acidulous fermentation. Sweet wines, which are liable to fret, are more highly and frequently sulphured than dry wines. After the wine has been sufficiently racked and fined, and when it has reached a certain stage of maturationvarying according to the type of wine from, as a rule, two to four yearsthe wine is ready for bottling. Certain wines, however, such as some of the varieties of port, are not bottled, but are kept in the wood
bottle .End of Article: VITICULTURE AND If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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