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On the Use of Sugar in Making Wine. August 27, 1826 In the American Farmer 6, no. 47 (February 11, 1823), Thomas McCall of Dublin, Georgia, published a letter detailing his method of making wine addressed to John Adlum of Maryland , the pioneer vintner and Revolutionary War veteran. McCall began experimenting with wine in 1816; he “pressed the juice, and made no additions of sugar or brandy; the wine was vapid, and tart, like Rhenish wine.” The letter chronicled experiments over several years to correct the vapidity of wine made simply from the juice of the grape. He argued for the extensive use of sugar to regularize the fermentation and strength of vintages. In 1826, after further experimentation, he published in the Southern Recorder a summary account of his method of sugaring the must. It came to Herbemont’s attention when reprinted in three successive issues of the American Farmer in September 1826.1 The extent of McCall’s dependence on sugar surprised Herbemont and provoked this letter questioning the practice. McCall possessed one of the bold personalities of his age.2 Brusque, patrician, and opinionated , he was the agricultural oracle of the Georgia pinelands. To forestall a pugnacious rejoinder , Herbemont presented himself as a scientific experimentalist reporting his findings after replicating McCall’s procedures. While McCall inspired respect in Herbemont for his experimental method, Adlum, the guru on wine in the pages of the American Farmer from 1823 to 1826, struck the Frenchman as a braggart. Published in American Farmer 8, no. 26 (September 15, 1826): 202–3. 1. Thomas McCall, “One the Culture of the Grape Vine and the Making of Wine,” American Farmer 8, no. 9 (May 19, 1826), 69–70; 8, no. 10 (May 26, 1826), 77–78; 8, no. 11 (June 2, 1826), 82–83. 2. Born in North Carolina in 1764, son of the regulator James McCall, he moved with his family to the Calhoun settlement in South Carolina. Col. James McCall, after an active career as an officer in the Revolution, died of wounds and disease in 1781. Thomas and his brother, the historian of Georgia, Hugh McCall, rose into prominence through public service and arms. Thomas Chase of Maryland first interested McCall in viticulture. He and his friend Gen. David Blackshear were the two avid devotees of the grape in the state during the first decades of the nineteenth century. Thomas McCall, “Memoir of the McCall Family,” in William J. Northen, Men of Mark in Georgia (Atlanta: Caldwell, 1907), 236–38. 125 Columbia, S.C., Aug. 27, 1826 J. S. Skinner, Esq. Sir—Having in my last communication of the 20th inst., given you some details on my cultivation of the grape vine, I shall now proceed to the manner of making the wine; at least that which I followed, together with a few observations on the subject. My partiality to this branch of agriculture may make me view it as more important and valuable that it really is. It is certainly of some importance, and if I over value it, it is an error of judgment, and it is the nature of man to err. The time best adapted for vintage is when the grapes are very fully ripe, and the cultivator ought to avail himself, if possible, of clear dry weather for this purpose. I find that scissors are much more convenient than knives for the gathering of the grapes, which ought to be cut off with as little of the stem as possible, recommending to the gatherers to cut off all the unsound berries, as also those that are too green. This is, I think, better done while gathering than after they have been brought to the vat, as in the latter case, the grapes must be handled a second time, which is a very troublesome operation when the quantity is great. Care must be taken to gather in one day all that is to be fermented at the same time in the vat. When the grapes are all ready, mash them thoroughly in a box full of small holes at the bottom and sides, placed over the vat and supported there by two pieces across it. This operation is done gradually, mashing only a small quantity at a time, and when sufficiently done, turn it into the vat, and go on so till the whole of the grapes are well and fully bruised; so that, if possible, not one berry—remains entire. How long the grapes are to...

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