The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, May, 1862: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, May, 1862: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
The grape-crop had been so affected by the _malattia_ or blight, that
the yield being small, the fruit to an extent was not pressed in the
vineyards, and the juice only brought up to the town in goat-skins as
usual; but the fruit itself was carried up, by those having the proper
places, and was pressed in tubs in the _cantine_ or rooms on the
ground-floor, where the wine is kept. Across the huge saddles of the
mules, they swung a couple of truncated cone-shaped barrels, and filled
them with grapes; these were tumbled into tubs, ranged in the _cantina_,
good, bad and indifferent fruit all together; and when enough were
poured in, in jumped the _pistatore d'uve_ or grape-presser, with bare
legs and feet, and began pressing and stamping, until the juice ran out
in a tolerable stream. This juice was then poured into a headless
hogshead, and when more than half-full, they piled on the grapeskins and
stones and stems that had undergone the pressure, until the hogshead was
full to the top. A weight was then placed over all. In twenty days,
fermentation having taken place, they drew from the hogshead the new
wine, which was afterward clarified with whites of eggs.
In this rough-and-ready way, the common wine is made. Without selection,
all grapes, ripe, unripe, and rotten, sweet and sour, are mashed up
together, hurriedly and imperfectly pressed, and the wine is sent to
market, to sell for what it will bring. Having thus seen it made, let us
see it disposed of.
Of all the monuments to Bacchus, in Rome, the one near the pyramid of
Caius Cestius, and still nearer the Protestant burying-ground, is by far
the most noticeable. Jealous of the lofty manner in which it lifts its
head above the surrounding fields and walls of the city, the church has
seen fit to crown its head with a cross, which it seems inclined to
shake off. This small mountain of a monument is conical in shape, and is
composed entirely of broken crockery; hence its name, _Testaccio_. In
its crockery sides, they have found a certain coolness and evenness of
temperature exactly suited to the storage of wine, and to maturing it;
hence, all around the mountain are deep vaults, filled with red and
white wines, working themselves up for a fit state to enter into the joy
and the gullets of the Roman _minenti_.
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