Book Blurbs

“‘Many times in the past I have had occasion to recognize the truth inherent in the practice of the old crafts,’ wrote Pasteur. ‘It does happen, of course, that these are truths of legend, tinged with the miraculous; but if you don’t mind a bit of the supernatural, and if you look at the facts themselves, you will almost invariably recognize that any practice, provided that it is generally followed, is the fruit of reasoned experience.’ And he continued: ‘The oldest writings on wine recommend the month of March for the first racking, and a day when the north wind blows, not the south wind, which brings rain, at least in the Jura. Do not think that this is a prejudice or a blind routine. This is a very old custom. To me, it is rational; wine, especially young wine, is oversaturated with carbonic-acid gas. If the barometric pressure has been very low for several days, the wine must discharge this gas. This will bring up tiny bubbles from the bottom of the barrel and these will be able to bring up with them the smallest solid particles of the deposits. The wine will therefore be less limpid than if it racked on a breezy day, when the atmospheric pressure tends to increase the solubility of gases in liquids. This, I believe, is the reason for the practice of which I am speaking.”