250 



Ale. p. c. P. Sp. p. c. 

 by weight, by voluma. 



Sherry— Strongest, 16.17 35.12 



Meau of i) wines very long kept in caek in the 



East Indies, 14.72 32.30 



Madre da Xeres, 16.90 37.06 



j^ , . j all long in cask f Strongest . . . 14.09 30.80 



^^^' tin East Indies tweakest . . . 16.90 36.81 



Teneriffe, long in cask at Calcutta, .... 13.84 30,21 



Cercial, 15.45 33.65 



Dry Lisbon, 16.14 34.71 



Shiraz, 12.95 28.30 



Amontillado, 12.63 27.60 



Claret,afirst growth of 1811, 7-72 16.95 



Chateau-Latour, first growth 1825, .... 7.78 17.06 



Rosan, second growth 1825, 7.61 16.74 



Ordinary Claret, a superior " vin ordinaire," . . 8.99 18.96 



Rives Altes, 9.31 22.35 



Malmsey, 12.86 28.37 



Rudesheimer, superior quality, .... 8.40 18.44 



Rudesheimer, inferior quality, 6.90 15.19 



Hambacher, superior quality, 7.35 16.15 



Giles' Edinburgh Ale, before bottling, . . . 5.70 12.60 



The same Ale, two years in bottle, . . . 6.06 13.40 



Superior London Porter, four months bottled, . 6.36 11.91 



In addition to certain obvious general conclusions which may be 

 drawn from this table, the author stated, as the result of his expe- 

 riments, that the alcoholic strength of various samples of the same 

 kind bears no relation whatever to their commercial value, and is 

 often very different from what would be indicated by the taste 

 even of an experienced wine-taster. 



Some observations were next made on the effect produced on 

 the alcoholic strength of wines by certain modes of keeping or 

 ripening them, more especially by the method employed in the case 

 of sherry, madeira, and such other wines, which consists of slow 

 evaporation for a series of years through the cask, above all, in hot 

 climates. The researches made by the author on this head are not 

 yet complete ; but he is inclined to infer, from the experiments al- 

 ready made, that, for a moderate term of years, the proportion of 

 alcohol increases in the wine, but afterwards, on the contrary, di- 

 minishes ; and that the period when the wine begins to lose in al- 

 coholic strength is probably that at which it ceases to improve in 

 flavour. The increase which takes place at first in the alcohol of 

 wine undergoing evaporation tiirough the cask, appeared at first 



