374 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In the youthful days of chemistry the first of these methods of 

 cookery was the only one available, and wine was kept by wine-mer- 

 chants with purely commercial intent for a considerable number of 

 years. 



A little reflection will show that this simple and original cookery 

 was very expensive, sufficiently so to legitimately explain the rise in 

 market value from tenpence to five shillings or more per bottle. 



Wine-merchants require a respectable profit on the capital they 

 invest in their business — say ten per cent per annum on the prime cost 

 of the wine laid down. Then there is the rental of cellars and offices, 

 the establishment expenses — such as wages, sampling, sending out, 

 advertising, losses by bad debts, etc. — to be added. The capital lying 

 dead in the cellar demands compound interest. At ten per cent the 

 principal doubles in about seven and one third years. Calling it seven 

 years, to allow very meagerly for establishment expenses, we get the 

 following result : 



£ s. d. 

 When Y years old the tenpenny wiue is worth 18 per bottle. 

 " 14 " " " 8 4 " 



" 21 " " " 6 8 " 



" 28 " " " 13 4 " 



" 35 " " " 16 8 " 



Here, then, we have a fair commercial explanation of the high 

 prices of old-fashioned old wines ; or of what I may now call the 

 " traditional value " of wine. 



Of course this is less when a man lays down his own wine in his 

 own cellar in obedience to the maxim, " Lay down good port in the 

 days of your youth, and when you are old your friends will not forsake 

 you." He may be satisfied with a much smaller rate of interest than 

 the man engaged in business faii'ly demands. Still, when wine thus 

 aged was thrown into the market, it competed with commercially cel- 

 lared wine, and obtained remarkable prices, especially as it has a spe- 

 cial value for " blending " purposes, i. e., for mixing with newer wines 

 and infecting them with its own senility. 



But why do I say that now such values are traditional ? Simply 

 because the progress of chemistry has shown us how the changes re- 

 sulting from years of cellarage may be effected by scientific cookery 

 ill a few hours or days. "We are indebted to Pasteur for the most 

 legitimate — I might say the only legitimate — method of doing this. 

 The process is accordingly called " Pasteuring." It consists in simply 

 heating the wine to the temperature of 60° C=140° Fahr., the tempera- 

 ture at which, as will be remembered, the visible changes in the cook- 

 ery of animal food commences. It is a process demanding considerable 

 skill ; no portion of the wine during its cookery must be raised above 

 this temperature, yet all must reach it ; nor must it be exposed to 

 the air. 



The apparatus designed by Rossignol is one of the best suited for 



