358 #N FAMTLY WTtfE MAKING. 



Brandy, liquor, a certain portion of brandy is added to it, after 



•ffedt° US ^ ^ which lt ma y be **B* for sonie time * The effect of this 

 addition is to put a stop to that salutary process of fermen- 

 tation which was going slowly forward, and gradually ma- 

 turing the native vegetable acid into vinous liquor, which 

 being at last blended with the saccharine vinous juice, pro- 

 duces that warm exhilarating fluid which cheers the heart, 

 and invigorates the strength of man. In this way the sharp 

 insipid and poor liquor which was first tasted is, by a slow 

 process, which requires a great length of time to complete 

 it, converted into rich pleasant wine, possessing, in a 

 great degree, that high zest which constitutes its principal 

 excellence. 



ic My experience does not yet enable me to speak with 

 certainty respecting all the circumstances that may affect 

 the flavour, or augment or diminish the strength of wine, 

 or accelerate or retard the time of its ripening. But my 

 The flavour opinion at present is, that a great part of the flavour of 

 affected by the w i ne depends considerably upon the skin of the fruity 

 fruit. which may be augmented or diminished by the degree of 



pressure the fruit is subjected to, and other particulars con- 

 nected with it; or by the macerating the fruit more or less 

 in the juice before the skins be separated from the pulp : 

 and that the ultimate qualities of the wine are considerably 

 affected by the proportion of the original native acid of the 

 fruit, conjoined with the saccharine part of the juice. It 

 seems to me very evident also, that the saccharine juice can 

 be more quickly brought into the state of wine than the 

 Some sooner fit a cid portion of it, and that of course those wines that con- 

 fer drinking s j s t entirely of saccharine matter, flavoured only by some 

 pleasing vegetable perfume, such as cowslip or elder-flower 

 wine, and others of similar sorts, may be sooner brought 

 to be tit for drinking than those in which the juices of fruit 

 form a considerable ingredient ; and may be also made of a 

 weaker and lighter quality. And that fruit-wines, in pro- 

 portion to the diminution of the quantity of fruit to that 

 of sugar, or in proportion to the quantity of acid in the 

 fruit, may be accelerated or retarded in the progress of fer-, 

 mentation ; but that strong full-bodied wine, of good fla- 

 V pur, must have a considerable proportion of native acid, 



an4 



