A history and description of modern wines / by Cyrus Redding.
- Cyrus Redding
- Date:
- 1833
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A history and description of modern wines / by Cyrus Redding. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
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![at least before they are filled the bottles should be cleaned and rinced. Shot should never be used, for the acid of the wine is apt to act upon such as are left jammed in the hollow of the bottoms. Clean gravel is better, or a small iron chain, the links minute and yet loose as they can be procured. The bottles should then be re- versed to drain in planks, having holes for the necks. Afterwards they should be rinced in a little brandy, if the wine to be bottled is weak and of small body, letting them drain as with the water, but not until quite dry. Very fine wines are injured by the brandy, and for them this process must not be used. The corks must be sound, well cut, so as to press equally on every part of the neck, and perfectly new, or they will impart a bad taste to the wine. They must be supple, or there is a chance of their breaking the bottles. Any corks with blackness, or the remains of the bark upon them, must be rejected. The corks should be driven home with a wooden mallet, the weight of which is regulated best by ex]3e- rience. Bottles should be waxed, or rather stopped with a composition. It is the custom among many wine mer- chants merely to seal over the tops of the corks. This is not enough, the glass should be included, to prevent any air passing between that and the cork. In France, for every three hundred bottles two pounds eight ounces of rosin are mixed with half that quantity of burgundy- pitch, and a quarter of yellow wax, with a small portion of red mastic, these are melted together, and taken off the fire when the froth rises, then stirred and placed on again until the mass is well combined. In some places tallow, in a smaller quantity, is substituted for the wax, for if there be too much the substance will not harden suffi- ciently; and if neither wax nor tallow are employed it will be too dry and brittle. 'I'he corks and a quarter of X](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21529504_0347.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
