Beverages
—
A
Icoholic
glass
manufacturer
liberally
for
them,
and
some
nine
makers
give
orders
for
as
many
as
from
50,000
to
20^,000'
at
a
time.
The
bottles
as
they
arrive
are
examined
by
an
experi-
enced
person,
and
those
which
contain
flaws
of
a#y
kind,
or
are
not
perfectly
new,
symmetrical
and
strong,
are
rejected.
These
average
about
10%.
The
bottles
are
required
to
be
as
nearly
as
possible
of
uniform
weight
and
thickness.
The
inside
of
each
bottle
is
scrubbed
by
means
of
a
revolving
hair
brush
and
clean
water.
After
being
drained,
the
bottles
are rinsed
with
90%
alcohol
and
closed
with
an
old
but
clean
cork.
They
are
thus
ready,
when
required,
for
filling.
The
wine
maker
also
expends
a
large
amount
of
money
in
the
purchase
of
corks,
which
must
be
of
the
best
and
soundest
description. It
has
been
found
to
be
very
false
economy
to use
inferior
kinds.
The
wine
being
drawn
into
bottles
to
a
height
of
2
or
3
inches
from
the
top
of
the
neck,
the
bottles
have
next
to
be
corked,
the
cork
being
secured
in
the
bottle
by
a
small
iron
band,
called
an
agrafe.
All
these operations
have
to
be
performed
deftly
and
rapidly
by
experienced
workmen.
With
what
speed
they
are
accomplished
may
be
imagined
from
the
fact
that
an
atelier
of
5
workmen,
who
divide
the
labor,
will
bottle
and
cork
from
1,200
to
1,500
bottles
daily,
2
bottles
passing
through
all
hands
in
1
minute.
The
corking,
etc.,
finished,
the
bottles
are
next
placed
on
their
sides
and
stacked
in
cellars
or
caves,
each
stack
being
sup-
ported
by
thin
laths.
As
the
summer
approaches,
the
wine
begins
to
show
signs
of
fermentation,
which
increases
with
the
hot
weather.
When
the
fermentation
reaches
such
a
stage
as
to cause
the
wine
to
occupy
the
previously
unfilled
space
in
the
neck
of
the
bottle,
a
large
number
of
bottles
begin
to
burst,
as
well
as
to
leak;
and
in
some
years
as
much
as
30%
of
the
wine
is
lost
from
these
causes.
Two
courses,
each
of
which
requires
to
be
promptly
adopted,
are
open
to the
wine
maker
under
these
circumstances.
Either
he
must
remove
the
wine
to
a
cooler
cellar
or
uncork
the
152