VITICULTURE.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXIV, Issue 1, 20 January 1922, Page 54

VITICULTURE.

J. C. WOODFIN,

Vine and Wine Instructor

VINEYARD AND CELLAR

The material for the coming vintage should now be overhauled, cleaned, and ■completed where necessary, and provision made for the incoming wine. Vats and ■casks should be rendered wine-tight by tightening the hoops and soaking the wood, either by spraying them or filling them with water. If the water is to remain in the wood several days it is desirable to add an antiseptic, such as bisulphide of lime, in the proportion of i in 1,000. Any doubtful wood should either be discarded or put on one side until treated properly. A great deal of wine is annually spoiled or diminished in value through wine being stored in tainted containers. Vats showing any signs of mould should be thoroughly scraped and washed out with a solution of caustic potash, and where it is suspected that the flavour of mould, or any other substance that might deteriorate the wine, has impregnated the wood, the parts affected should be painted' over with an impermeable substance — gumlac or paraffin. In vats which have contained diseased wines it is essential to destroy the germs, which may still be lodged between the staves, by steaming or by filling with water ■containing | per cent, of bisulphide. of lime. ... . ■ ... Some notes on phylloxera-resistant vine-stocks are published as a separate article in this issue.