Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/169

 the wine, under the best management, is inferior in quality, or when it is intended for distillation.

When it is determined to make a choice of grapes, the following directions may guide in making it:—Not to cut any but those which have been well exposed to the sun's rays, and of which the berries are equally large, and equally coloured; to reject all which have been in the shade, and such as have been close to the ground; and to prefer the lowest bunches of a shoot.

In the vineyards which furnish the different descriptions of Bordeaux wine, much care is used in picking the grapes; and so minute is this operation in some cantons, that the vintage lasts for two months, and the grapes are picked at six different times. In some districts it is conceived, that the wine, made from grapes which are all ripe, is too sweet, and a portion of sourer grapes are intentionally mixed with them. Again, there are countries where the grape, never reaching a state of absolute maturity, and consequently not developing that portion of saccharine principle necessary to the formation of alcohol, is, nevertheless, gathered before the appearance of frost, because, at this time, it contains a sort of sharp acid principle, which gives a peculiar character to the wine. In such countries, it is observed, that this