and the Method of waking Wines ^ 333 



ciple of sugar in the products of vegetation ; and these two 

 principles are so well combined in some cases that they can- 

 not be completely disunited but with difficulty. This is what 

 will long prevent sugar, perhaps, from being extracted for 

 commerce from several vegetables which contain it. Th- 

 sugar-cane appears to be that of all the vegetables in which 

 this separation is easiest. Many facts induce us to believe that 

 this sweet principle approaches near in its nature to the sac- 

 charine principle ; that, under favourable circumstances, it may 

 even be converted into sugar : but the present is not the mo- 

 ment for discussing this important point. 



Grapes, then, may be very sweet and very agreeable to the 

 taste, yet produce very bad wine ; because sugar may exist 

 only in very small quantity in grapes which to appearance 

 are highly saccharine. This is the reason why grapes exceed- 

 ingly sweet to the taste do not always furnish the most spi- 

 ritous wines. In a word, a very little practice is sufficient 

 to enable us to distinguish the really saccharine savour from 

 the sweet taste which some grapes possess. Thus the mouth 

 habituated to taste the highly saccharine grapes of the south, 

 will not confound with them the chasselas, though very sweet, 

 of Fontainebleau. 



We ought therefore to consider sugar as the principle which 

 gives rise to the formation of alcohol by its decomposition, 

 and sweet and saccharine bodies as the real leaven of spiritous 

 fermentation. That must, then, may be proper for under- 

 going a good fermentation, it ought to contain these two 

 principles in proper proportions : sugar alone does not fer- 

 ment, or at least the fermentation of it is slow and incom- 

 plete. Pure mucilage does not furnish alcohol ; it is only to 

 the union of these two substances that we arc indebted for 

 good spiritous fermentation *. 



2d, Very aqueous must, as well as too thick must, experi- 

 ences fermentation with difficulty. A proper degree of fluid- 

 ity, then,- is necessary to obtain good fermentation; and this 



* There are some mucous bodies capable of undergoing sph'itous fer, 

 mentation ; but it is probable that these mucous bodies contain sugar- 

 which is more difficult to be extracted in proportion as the quantity is less. 



is 



