13. Subsidence

Subsidence

Chemical science teaches that the gluten may be so effectually separated from the juice by subsidence as to prevent fermentation. The gluten, being heavier than the juice, will settle to the bottom by its own weight if the mass can be kept from fermentation for a limited period. Chemistry tells us that, if the juice is kept at a temperature below 45°, it will not ferment. The juice being kept cool, the gluten will settle to the bottom, and the juice, thus deprived of the gluten, cannot ferment. Dr. Ure says: “By lowering the temperature to 45°, if the fermenting mass becomes clear at this temperature and be drawn off from the subsided yeast, it will not ferment again, though it should be heated to the proper pitch”—Bible Commentary, p. 168.

Pliny, liber xiv. c. 9, when speaking of a wine called Aigleuces, that is, always sweet, says: “Id evenit cura.” “That wine is produced by care.” He then gives the method: “Mergunt eam protinus in aqua cados donec bruma transeat et consuetudo fiat algendi.” “They plunge the casks, immediately after they are filled from the vat, into water, until winter has passed away and the wine has acquired the habit of being cold”—Kitto, ii. 955; Anti-Bacchus, 217; Smith’s Antiquities. Being kept below 45°, the gluten settled to the bottom, and thus fermentation was prevented.

Columella gives the recipe: “Vinum dulce sic facere oportet.” “Gather the grapes and expose them for three days to the sun; on the fourth, at mid-day, tread them; take the mustum lixivium; that is, the juice which flows into the lake before you use the press, and, when it has settled, add one ounce of powdered iris; strain the wine from its faeces, and pour it into a vessel. This wine will be sweet, firm or durable, and healthy to the body”—Nott, London Ed. 213; Anti-Bacchus, 216.

We notice in this recipe: 1, the lixivium, which the lexicon (Leverett) defines “must, which flows spontaneously from grapes before they are pressed;” 2, this is allowed to settle, the gluten thus subsiding; 3, pounded iris is put into the juice, and then it is strained or filtered. Here are three combined operations to prevent fermentation. The same author, liber xii. cap. 29 (see Nott and Anti-Bacchus, 216), mentions a recipe: “That your must may always be as sweet as when it is new, thus proceed: Before you apply the press to the fruit, take the newest must from the lake, put into a new amphora, bung it up, and cover it very carefully with pitch, lest any water should enter; then immerse it in a cistern or pond ofpure cold water, and allow no part of the amphora to remain above the surface. After forty days, take it out, and it will remain sweet for a year.” Prof. C. Anthon gives the same recipe in his Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. We here notice: 1, that the newest—the unfermented juice—is taken; 2, it is put in a new amphora or jar free from all ferment from former use; 3, the air is perfectly excluded; 4, it is immersed in cold water for forty days. Being below 45°, fermentation could not commence. Thus there was ample time for the gluten to settle at the bottom, thus leaving the juice pure and sweet.

Columella, liber xii. cap. 51, gives a recipe for making oleum gleucinum: “To about ninety pints of the best must in a barrel, eighty pounds of oil are to be added, and a small bag of spices sunk to the place where the oil and wine meet; the oil to be poured off on the ninth day. The spices in the bag are to be pounded and replaced, filling up the cask with another eighty pounds of oil; this oil to be drawn off after seven days”—Bible Commentary, p. 297. Here notice: 1, The best must—the unfermented juice—is taken; 2, This, when in the cask, is covered with oil, which excludes the air from the juice; 3, A bag of spices is placed in contact with the juice; 4, After nine days, in which the gluten would settle, the oil is poured off; 5, The spices are pounded and replaced, oil again is poured in, to remain seven days, and then drawn off, leaving the juice pure and unfermented. The ancients preserved some of their wines by depurating them. “The must, or new wine,” says Mr. T.S. Carr, “was refined with the yolks of pigeon eggs (Roman Antiquities), which occasioned the subsidence of the albumen or ferment. But on the new wine being allowed to stand, this principle would subside by natural gravity; hence the ancients poured off the upper and luscious portion of the wine into another vessel, repeating the process as often as necessary, until they procured a clear, sweet wine which would keep”—Kitto, ii. 955.

Harmer, on the authority of Charden, observes that “in the East they frequently pour wine from vessel to vessel; for when they begin one, they are obliged immediately to empty it into smaller vessels or into bottles, or it would grow sour.” Chemistry teaches that sweet juices in hot climates, if left to themselves, immediately pass into the acetous fermentation and become sour. To avoid this the above process was adopted.