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Wines, Bottling Of

Bottling can never be looked on as an unimportant matter, seeing that upon the process depend in a great measure many of the finest qualities of different wines. As a general rule, fine and delicate wines never attain to their full perfection till they have been some time in bottle. There are many conditions essential to a satisfactory performance of the operation, such as the state of the wine, the atmosphere, and the materials employed in the process. The state of the wine should be such as would prevent any further advantages accruing from its retention in the wood. This point varies much even in the same wine--that is, in wine made from the same plants grown upon the same ground, but of different crops (because the grapes of one year's crops may be more matured than those of another), and even in the same crop, when the wine has been placed in different utensils and subjected to slight changes of temperature. To ascertain the point, the palate of a skilled "taster" is usually the surest guide. Wine should never be bottled till it is still, clear, and translucent. The least negligence in these respects may seriously compromise its condition after bottling. From what has just been said, it will be seen that it is impossible to fix a determinate date at which particular wines ought to be bottled. In any case, it should not be delayed until the wine begins to deteriorate, nor hurried on before it has acquired a suitable maturity. The atmospheric conditions most favourable to the process of bottling are those in which the wine is most tranquil. Autumn and winter, up to the end of March, when the weather is still cold--neither damp, overbright, nor thundery--are the best times, for the reasons which render these seasons most suitable to "racking." As regards material, great circumspection should be observed in the choice of bottles and of the corks to be used with them. However good the bottles themselves may be, it is indispensable that they should be washed, inside and out, with scrupulous care, so that they may be free from the least spot or stain of any foreign substance, and from suspicion of imparting even the slightest colour or taste to the water in which they are washed. The practice of using leaden small-shot in washing bottles, to detach the harder portions of fur and crust, is highly prejudicial, and should be forbidden in every case. The shot-corns often get wedged between the sides of the bottle and its convex bottom so firmly as to defy all efforts to dislodge them. Coming in contact with the wine, they dissolve more or less completely, and communicate to the latter poisonous properties, due not only to the formation of salts of lead, but to the arsenic which enters into the composition of small shot. For cleansing purposes, therefore, metallic chains with small joints are greatly to be preferred, though, after all, washing with suitable brushes is the best method, and various small machines exist which execute the operation very satisfactorily. The bottles should be allowed to drain thoroughly before the wine is put in, for which purpose they should be made to stand bottom upwards for a sufficient time, the necks being inserted in orifices placed for the purpose on tables or shelves. Corks should invariably be used as stoppers. It is very essential that they should be of good quality, fine, even in texture, and elastic, and, in the case of new corks, that they should be properly cut, and free from defects. After bottling, it is very desirable that the wine should stand for some time, to get the full benefit of the operation--generally speaking, for twelve months at least. During this period the bottle should be kept in a suitable storehouse, in such a position that the wine may cover the corks, and should on no account be moved. Ordinary wines containing a small portion of alcohol are apt to fur if these precautions are unheeded. Should the wine deposit any sediment after bottling (which it generally does), it will of course form on the under side, and care must be taken in moving the wine to prevent any admixture of the sediment therewith.