Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/187

 degree of Fahrenheit, it is necessary to raise it by, artificial means; boiling must, may be mixed with the mass, to carry it to the proper temperature, and the cellar warmed with stoves to maintain it. In Burgundy, a cylinder such as is used for heating baths, is introduced into the vat. A phenomenon sufficiently extraordinary, but whose truth seems too well established by numerous observations to admit of doubt, is, that the fermentation is slow, in proportion as the atmosphere has been cold, at the moment of gathering the vintage, Rozier observed, in 1769, that grapes gathered on the 7th, 8th, and 9th October, remained in the vat till the 19th, without showing any disposition to ferment. The thermometer was two degrees below the freezing point in the mornings, and only rose three degrees above it during the days on which they were gathered. The fermentation was not completed till the 25th, while a vat full of must, from grapes of the same kind, gathered on the 16th, at a much higher temperature, had completed theirs on the 21st or 22d.

This fact merits much attention. It proves, that when must, in a very cold state, is deposited în a vat, it retains its temperature for a long time, and in a greater degree, if the temperature of the cellar where it is placed is cold. In such a case,