152 
jurors, whose scale was from one to four, with a zero at the foot, generally com- 
plimented our Catawba with a zero, and they remarked that the more of the 
natural flavor the wine possessed, other things being equal, the lower they 
should estimate it. In America the very contrary is known to be the case. 
The German jurors, accustomed to wines of high bouquet, held quite different 
opinions from the French, and were much pleased with the American samples. 
In regard to the more delicate wines of Europe which do not bear exportation, 
an important discovery is said to have been made by the distinguished che mist 
Pasteur, of the Institute, which is exciting great interest, and promises nothing 
less than to secure wine against disease and deterioration for an indefinite period, 
to enable it to be transported with safety any distance, and kept in any sort of 
storehouse. The best way to make known in America the discoveries of Mr. 
Pasteur would be to translate and publish his very valuabte work, entitled 
«Etudes Sur le Vin,” sold by Victor Masson & Sons, Place de l’Ecole de 
Medicine, Paris. Meanwhile we will give a brief synopsis of it. 
After explaining at length the nature of the different diseases of the wine, 
acidity, bitterness, &c., tracing them all to vegetable parasites, and detailing his 
experiments in search of an agent to destroy the parasites, Mr. Pasteur arrives 
at the conclusion that they are effectually destroyed by heating the wine upto a 
point between fifty and sixty-five degrees of centigrade, which would be between 
122° and 149° of Fahrenheit. The heating can be done in a “ Bain Marie,” 
that is, by placing the bottle or cask in a vessel filled with water and heating the 
water, or by hot-air closets or steam-pipes introduced into the casks. The 
heating should be gradually and carefully accomplished in order to enable any 
one to test the value of this invention, so important in its aims. 
We extract the following, which gives all the author has to say on the mode 
he has himself followed with wine already in bottle, whether new or old, dis- 
eased or sound : 
«The bottle being corked. either with the needle or otherwise, by machine 
or not, and the corks tied on like those of champagne bottles, they are placed 
in a vessel of water; to handle them easily, they are put into an iron bottle- 
basket. The water should rise as high as the ring about the mouth of the 
bottle. I have never yet completely submerged them, but do not think there 
would be any inconvenience in doing so, provided there should be no partial 
cooling during the heating up, which might causethe admission of a little water 
into the bottle. One of the bottles is filled with water, into the lower part of 
which the bowl of a thermometer is plunged. When this marks the degree of 
heat desired, 149° of Fahrenheit for instance, the basket is withdrawn. It will 
not do te put in another immediately, the too warm water might break the bot- 
tles. A portion of the heated water is taken out and replaced with cold, to reduce 
the temperature to a safe point, or, better still, the bottles of the second basket 
may be prepared by warming, so as to be put in as soon as the first comes out. 
The expansion of the wine during the heating process tends to force cut the cork, 
but the twine or wire holds it in, and the wine finds a vent between the neck 
and the cork. During the cooling of the bottles, the volume of the wine having 
diminished, the corks are hammered in further, the tying is taken off, and the 
wine is put in the cellar, or the ground floor, or the second story, in the shade, 
or inthe sun. There is no fear that any of these different modes of keeping it 
will render it diseased, they will have no influence except on its mode of matur- 
ing, on its colors, &e. It will always be useful to keep a few bottles of the 
same kind without heating it, so as to compare them at long intervals with that 
which has been heated. The bottle may be kept in an upright position, no 
mould will form, but perhaps the wine will lose a little of its fineness under 
such condition, if the cork gets dry, and air is allowed too freely to enter.” 
Mr. Pastuer affirms that he has exposed casks of wine thus heated in the 
