1863 The manufacture of liquors, wines, and cordials

MAKING WINE VINEGAR IN FRANCE.

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rhe method pursued in making Wine Vinegar in I mce, where it is manufactured in the greatest pc fection, is as follows : Casks are employed of about the capacity of eighty-eight wine gallons ; those being preferred which have been used for a simil.'jtr purpose. They are placed upright in three rows, one above the other ; each cask having an. opening at the top of about two inches in diameter. In summer, no artificial heat is required ; but the wine intended to be converted into vinegar is kept in separate casks containing beech shavings, on which the lees (\re deposited. Twenty-two ga.llons of good vinegar, boiling hot, are first introduced into each vinegar cask, and at the end of eight days about two gallons of the wine, drawn off clear, are added ; and the same quantity is added every eight days un- til the casks are full. After this the vinegar takes about fifteen days to form. At the end of that time only half tKo contents of each cask is drawn off ; and it is filled Tip again by the addition of two gal- lons of wine every eight days as at first. In some cases, however, the quantity of wine added, and the intervals between the successive additions, are greater or less than those here indicated. The variations in this respect depending upon the progress of the fermentation to determine this point, the operator plunges a stave into the cask, and upon withdrawing