Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/177

 is continued, till the vat is full, or the vintage concluded.

In the central districts of France, and in all those where I have had an opportunity of personally examining the wine cellars, instead of the method above described, a stage is raised above the level of the vat, and inclining towards it; and the cellars, being frequently on the side of a hill, there is an entrance to this stage from the side opposite to the door, through which the grapes are carried, and the operation carried on as in the other case, the must running by a spout into the vat, or into a reservoir, from which it is conveyed to it. A different method is practised in some places, the grapes being put into the vat as soon as they arrive, are then slightly trod, and, when fermentation has commenced, the upper part of the liquor is carefully drained off, and allowed to finish its fermentation in casks; what remains, is submitted to the press, and yields a wine with more colour, and less perfume than the first.

In whatever way this operation is performed, Chaptal considers it of the greatest importance, that each berry should be broken, as the march of fermentation will only be uniform, in proportion as the operation is perfectly performed. The expressed juice shall have terminated the period of its decomposition, before the grapes, which have