Feh. 3, 1908.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S W 141 



the volatile acidity from traces increases to appreciable proportions that the 

 wine becomes more or less iiiidi-inkable. 



Some Australian wines, like all wines produced in hot climates, show a 

 marked deficiency in fixed acids on account of the grapes being overripe when 

 taken to the crusher. This deficiency is mainly responsible for the development 

 and growth of those micro-organisms responsible for the volatile acidity, as 

 they thrive 1-ss in a medium with a higher degree of fixed acids. The hot 

 weather prevailing at vintage and other factors i-eferred to so oft'^n in the 

 Gazette, enhance the activity of those germs, which by tht-ir multiplication 

 encroach on the alcoholic yeast. 



It is safe to say when tasting a bad Australian wine that its fixed acidity 

 is relativr-ly low and the volatile is high. Wines of this kind are the:i thought 

 by people as having been adulterated, when really those winps are genuine 

 and pure, only they have been Ijadly made or badly looked after. 



Those are the wines that, relatively few as they may be, discredit the New 

 South Wales vintages, and as the mass of people in general is not apt to 

 discriminate, a wholesale condemnation ensues. 



In the wine-drinking countries of Europe a limit as to the amount of 

 volatile acidity tolerated in wine is fixed by law, and the same should be done 

 here by opportunely amending the Wine Adulteration Act, 1902. By doing 

 this the sale of unsound wines, even if unadulterated, would be prohibited, 

 and only a wholesome and palatable article would be found on t'le market. 

 New South Wales wines have all the nourishing qualities of European wines. 

 The proportion of ashes, viz., mineral matter, is from fair to good, and com- 

 pares very favourably with any of the old-world vintage. The quantity of 

 phosphoric acid is normal ; the average quantity of sulphates is about -6 per 

 thousand cubic centimetres, therefore always far below the limit prescribed 

 by the law ; while Algerian, Spanish, and Portuguese wines often contain an 

 undue amount of acid potassium sulphate on accovmt of the old and unjusti- 

 fiable practice of adding gypsum t > the must during fermentation — still pursued 

 by many growers in those countries. Boron is normal in Australian wines 

 as in those of various other countries ; but its proportion is so small that no 

 person could make a point of it and elude the law if using boracic acid as a 

 preservative. This State's wines contain also iron and manganese in propor- 

 tion considered by the medical science sufficient to act beneficially. We have 

 only made qualitative tests of the iron. Its presence in the New South 

 Wales wines did not surprise us, as most wines contain it, but we were 

 pleased to discover manganese as well, which we always found whenever 

 looked for and determined quantitatively when in appreciable proportions. 



We showed Dr. Th. Fiaschi the data relative to manganese found in the 

 wines of New South Wales and that gentleman expressed the opinion that 

 they represented the proportions administererl for therapeutic purposes. For 

 a long time it has been and it is still c(«isidered that iroft and manganese are 

 found in wine in a state of chemical combination that makes the two 

 elements assimilable by the human system, and that state of combination, so 

 it is believed by many medical authorities, has not yet been reproduced by 

 any pharmaceutical preparation. 



