The wine cellar should if possible face north, and be divided in two portions, as some wines, such as Madeira, Sherry, Malaga, and Cyprus, keep better at a higher temperature than the light wines require. " The wines of Champagne, Bordeaux, and the Rhone should be kept in cellars where no motion can affect them, far from the vibration or rather trembling of the earth from the traffic over granite pavements; they should be as far removed from sewers and the air of courts where trades of a bad odour are carried on, as possible".

Bad smells affect wine. Vinegar must never be kept in a wine cellar, and the temperature should be maintained the same all the year round, by a thermometer; for wine is influenced by heat and cold, by frequent moving and shaking. The temperature of the cellar should be between 460 and 56° Fahrenheit.

Greek and Hungarian wines require a temperature of 66° Fahrenheit.*

Sparkling wines should be kept in the very coolest part of the cellar, cork downwards. All other kinds should be laid down horizontally, that the cork may be kept moist and the air thus excluded; but the rich wines of liqueur, as Malaga, Syracuse, etc, may be placed on their ends.

Wines differ considerably as to the time of keeping. They lose their bouquet by being kept too long. There is always a middle period when they are best used.

Burgundy will be good for twenty years, but it does not improve after fourteen. Good Champagne improves for fifteen years, and will keep forty years, but is best at twelve years old.

Roussillon will keep for any length of time. The luscious wines improve by keeping, as do port and sherry. Effervescing wines require to be bottled early. Delicate and light wines should remain unbottled as long as possible, for in that state they improve most. Strong-bodied wines, on the contrary, should remain long in bottle. When any wine ceases to deposit it begins to deteriorate.

Great care should be taken in bottling delicate wines.

Mr. Redding tells us that on the Continent a plan is adopted which enables the wine to be drawn off slowly (even as required for drinking) without injuring the wine by the inevitable admission of air. A bottle of the purest olive oil is poured on the wine. It floats of course at the top, and excludes the air from the partly emptied cask, so that the quality of the wine will be preserved for a year's duration.

Wine in casks should be firmly laid up, and bottled only in fine weather.

* Artificial heat may be introduced into a cellar by means of a chafing-dish.

The bottles should be cleansed and rinsed twenty-four hours before they are filled.

Shot should never be used to cleanse wine bottles, as if any of them get jammed in, the acid of the wine will act on them. Clean gravel is much the best. After washing, the bottles should be well drained, being placed with their necks downwards. Afterwards they should be rinsed with a little brandy, if the wine is not of the first class. Very fine wine would be spoiled by the brandy.

The corks should be selected with care; they must be sound, not specked with black, well cut, and quite new, or they will give a bad taste to the wine. The corks are improved by steeping them in hot water. A wooden mallet, a bottling boot, and a squeezer will be required. The corking boot is buckled by a strap to the knee, the bottle placed in it, and the cork after being squeezed in the press is driven into the bottle. But we are going a little too fast. The wine has to be bottled first.

Place the bottle and filterer in a tub by the cask, bore a hole in the lower part of the cask with a gimlet, and receive the wine in the bottle. Two persons should bottle the wine. The bottle, when as full as required, should be passed to the person who corks, who does it as above described. As the wine draws near the bottom of the cask a thick piece of muslin is placed in the strainer to receive the sediment. Bottles should have the corks covered with a composition of resin, Burgundy pitch, and yellow wax, with a little red mastic. This is melted over the fire till it froths, then stirred and replaced till it has well combined; with this mixture the corks should be wholly covered.

The wine when bottled must be stored away in its respective bins, and covered with a layer of sawdust. The rows of bottles are separated by a lath, and the necks laid alternately in opposite directions, the necks of the second row being placed towards the bottoms of the first. Wine so laid in will be ready for use according to its age. Old port wine will be ready to drink after it has been bottled about six months.

Good sherry will be fit to drink as soon as the "sickness," as it is called, ceases.

For fining wine the following receipt is a good one. Draw a gallon and a half of the wine, whisk into one quart of it the whites of five eggs, with a whisk. When it is thoroughly mixed, pour it into the cask by the bunghole and stir it up with a long thin stick; then pour in the rest of the gallon; stir again and skim off the bubbles which follow. Close the bunghole and let it stand for three or four days, or isinglass may be used; one ounce is sufficient to clear 100 gallons of wine.