Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/166

 2d, The bunch becomes pendant.

3d, The berry has lost its hardness, and the skin has become thin and translucent.

4th, The berries are easily, and without effort, detached from the bunch.

5th, The juice of the grape has become savoury, sweet, thick, and viscid.

6th, The stones or seeds of the berry, are free from any glutinous substance.

The falling of the leaves, announces rather the return of the winter, than the maturity of the fruit; it is, therefore, considered rather equivocal, as well as the rotting of the grapes, which a thousand causes may decide, without allowing any proof of maturity to be drawn from them. Nevertheless, when frost has caused the falling of the leaf, it is no longer safe to delay the vintage. The grapes, especially the black varieties, are not capable of receiving further maturation; a longer stay on the stock would only decide their putrefaction. In very hot climates, however, where the atmosphere preserves a great degree of dryness, and where, consequently, the grape, arrived at perfect maturity, dries upon the stock, and acquires the property of giving a more spirituous and sweeter wine, the vintage may be without danger delayed.

There are qualities in wine, which can only be obtained, by allowing the grapes which are to