HORTICULTURE. 309 



is thick, and the pulp hard ; it will never be valuable as a wine grape, unless to give to other 

 must aroma and flavor. 



If for no other purpose than this — namely, to mix with the must of less flavored grapes, 

 to give character to the wine when made — this Scuppernong will prove to be most valuable to 

 this country. The "Traminer" of the Rheingan, a small-berried grape, abounding in sac- 

 charum, and full of aroma and strength, is so used to mix with the "Riesling," the favorite 

 grape of the Rhine, in the production of the first-class German wines. And that the gene- 

 rality of European wines owe their excellence to the judicious mixture of various growths 

 and vintages is so well known as scarcely to need repeating here. 



But the value of the Scuppernong as a wine grape has not yet become fairly tried; at 

 least not in North Carolina. Of all the samples we have tasted, not one was the pure and 

 original fermented juice of the grape, but, in every case, more or less sophisticated with 

 sugar or honey, and not unfrequently with whiskey or brandy. It is usual to add three 

 pounds of sugar to one gallon of the must, and then a little distilled spirits of some kind is 

 poured into every barrel of wine "to make it keep." Subjected to this treatment, the fluid 

 degenerates into a sort of vinous grog, and its peculiar character as a wine is almost entirely 

 lost. Still, in spite of this, it has an aroma which is somewhat grateful. 



That species of the Muscadine called the Scuppernong is a very sweet grape, but sweet 

 grapes are often wanting in saccharine matter. For a familiar instance, take the Catawba and 

 Isabella grapes. To the taste the latter is by far the sweetest fruit; nevertheless, in making 

 a sparkling wine, the Isabella needs a liberal allowance of sugar, while the Catawba wine 

 requires little or none. McCulloch, in his treatise on wine-making, makes a very accurate 

 distinction between the " sweet principle" and that which constitutes the "sugar" in fruit. 

 The latter, the saccharine principle, is the element which by the process of fermentation is 

 transmuted into alcohol or spirit of wine, a certain percentage of which is necessary in all 

 vinous fluids. This spirit of the wine is derived directly from the sugar of the grape. Now, 

 the difference between the sweet element and the saccharine element is very clearly shown 

 by McCulloch, who illustrates the subject by comparing molasses with refined sugar, the first 

 being much the sweetest of the two to the taste, and yet not comparable to the latter in its 

 proportion of pure saccharum. And if we may venture upon a theory, we should say "that 

 the reason why sweet grapes makes a wine less sweet than those not so dulcet to the taste, 

 lies in this : that in the sweet grape the whole quantity of saccharum is absorbed in the pro- 

 duction of alcohol, while in those more abounding in sugar a portion only is transmuted into 

 alcohol ; the superflux of sugar remaining in undisturbed solution, and sweetening the wine, 

 less or more, as may be." 



Now the Scuppernong grape produces a wine naturally hard and dry, with little to recom- 

 mend it but its peculiar aroma and flavor; and, in consequence, the must is artificially 

 sweetened to make it a marketable or salable commodity. So long as this method of treat- 

 ment is practised, neither it nor any other American wine so used can rank with any wines 

 of Europe, except with the spurious productions of Cette, Lisbon, and Marseilles. The diffi- 

 culty lies in this: our vine-growers are afraid of a hard, dry wine, because popidar taste so far 

 (especially in the rural districts) has been corrupted by the sweetened, sophisticated, poorest 

 class of imported wines, the sweet malagas and pure-juice ports that are current in every 

 country town. Pure, wholesome wines never are, and never should be, sweet; a glass of 

 syrup is no refreshment for a laborer, and, as a daily beverage for anybody, actually repul- 

 sive; and as we are looking forward to the period when our wine shall be used as the com- 

 mon drink for all classes of people, we should define now and here that by "wines" we 

 mean the pure, fermented juice of the grape, without the admixture of any thing else 

 whatsoever. 



That the Scuppernong is a hard, dry wine, when made without sugar, is doubtless true; 

 but the question is, "What character will this very wine assume when mellowed by age?" 

 The Sercial, the king of Madeiras, is as harsh, austere, and repulsive, for the first few years, 

 as a blue-nosed Presbyterian elder fresh from the synod, nor is it drinkable until age has 

 corrected the acerbity of its temper; but what then? Then it becomes one of the most exqui- 

 site fluids in the world, and commands a price superior, in some instances, to any known 



