also, wines that have fermented in large bodies,
in tuns, yield more liberally than those from
little casks. In cold seasons, wine gives ordinarily
less eau-de-vie, but then it is of better
quality; after hot summers, the wine is more
spirituous, and the eau-de-vie less agreeable.
Of course, all flat, over-fermented, and
acidulated wine gives an inferior and deficient
sample of brandy.

The whole art of brandy-distilling depends
and is founded on the circumstance that wine
is a liquid consisting of fluid elements, a
certain portion of which are more volatile, or
fly off in vapour, at a lower temperature and
more rapidly than the others. But matter is
a subtle as well as a solid form of created
existence, or entity; and the light-winged
particles of spirit, as they take their
departure, are apt to be joined by the evil
companionship of essential oils, mouldy germs,
and empyreumatic odours, which, if they do
not corrupt good manners, certainly spoil
good eau-de-vie.

Herein consists the why and the wherefore
that all brandy is not the same brandy. The
department of Charente is renowned for the
skill with which it draws off the cream of the
flighty fumes, leaving all the good-for-nothing
refuse, or bouillies, behind. The apparatus
is not complicated. A copper alembic
is all that is required. It is composed of four
principal parts ; the boiler or chaudière, of
various size and form, and frequently pretending
to smartness of fashion, but ordinarily a
truncated cone some thirty-one inches in per-
pendicular height, and thirty-one inches in
diameter at the circle of the base; the cap or
chapeau, hermetically fixed to the top of the
boiler, to prevent the fumes of ardent spirit
from escaping ; the beak, or bec du chapeau,
or rather its tail, a tube some twenty-seven
inches long, and equally vapour-tight; and
the serpentin, or worm, formed of live circles
sloping with a regular inclination one beneath
the other, the prolongation of the spiral being
supported by thin iron props furnished with
rings through which the circling worm is
made to pass. The lower extremity of the
worm, where it issues from its water-tub, or
cold bath, is met by a funnel whose lower end
is plunged in the bassiot, or vessel which
catches the eau-de-vie. The greater the surface
of the boiler, the more rapid the distillation
will be, and the eau-de-vie will incur less
risk of being tainted with ill savours and
flavours. For the same reason, the most
combustible wood must be employed to heat the
furnace and set the boiler going at double
quick step. Various little precautions have to
be observed; amongst others, not to set the
premises on fire. The first eau-de-vie which
flows is the strongest. If you wish to keep
the strong brandy separate, you must remove
the bassiot after a certain time, and replace it
by another.

In ferior brandy isalso obtained from the marc
or refuse from the winepress; thus: The solid
mass of squeezed grapes from the press is
crumbled and broken up as finely as possible.
So divided, it is put into tuns to ferment. As
the marc still retains a certain amount of
sweetness, in spite of the pressure to which
it has been subjected, a few buckets of water
are thrown upon it to moisten the whole.
Gradually, vinous fermentation is established,
and more water is added from day to day,
but with due discretion. For, if the saccharine
particles were too much diluted, the vinous
fermentation would soon change to the
acetous, and putridity would speedily follow.
The vessel must be closely covered all the
while. When the fermentation is complete,
the best plan to avoid bad tasted spirit
is to draw off the vinous water from the
tun, to put it in hogsheads, to press the marc,
and add what comes away to the rest; in
short, to treat this small wine exactly like
ordinary wine, being careful to stop the
hogsheads as quickly as possible. When the little
wine has settled, or towards the close of
winter, it is racked off, distilled, and gives a
soft and pleasant eau-de-vie. If wine is down,
to zero in price, and wood is up to fever-heat
in dearness, the distillation of small marc
wine will afford but small profit ; but when
wine is dear and wood is cheap, marc
distillation pays well.

When a peasant-proprietor out in the country
has burnt his wine into eau-de-vie, if the
markets put on an inviting aspect, he loads
the chariot before his door with precious
tubs, he then washes his face and hands, puts
on a clean shirt and blouse, and takes his
Sunday broad-brimmed hat out of the closet.
He proceeds slowly on his way with stately
step, and enters the narrow crooked passages
which Cognac dignifies with the name of
streets, announcing his arrival by a long
succession of what you might take for pistol-
shots, but which are no more than harmless
cracks of the whip. He stops at the gate of
the establishment, say of Messrs. R. and Co.,
cargo is set down, taken in, rolled up
an inclined plane, and measured at once by
transfusion into a cylindrical vessel which
has outside it a glass tube, to which a
graduated scale is attached, communicating with
the interior, and therefore showing exactly
how full the measure is. That settled he
walks off with the empty casks, goes on his
way rejoicing, leaving the rustic eau-de-vie to
be converted into gentlemanly cognac brandy.
The purchased liquor is let off from the
cylinder by means of a tap, and is either
received into the merchant's casks and rolled
into a cellar-cave hewn in the rock for the
temporary reception of ordinary brandies, or
is made to pass through a tube into lower
regions, where its further education is to be
completed.

Before leaving the reception-room, cast a
glance at the little adjoining apartment where
the sugar is burnt, to colour the brandy ;
then stroll through the series of basement-