222 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 
The Victorian hock-chablis group has an average alcoholic 
strength of 22.6 per cent.; this is in close agreement with the 
average result for French chablis obtained locally, but is 5 per 
cent. ‘above the mean for German wines, found as the results of 
some thousands of determinations made annually since 1895 by 
the Imperial German Commission for Wine Statistics2°. 
The total dry extract (unfermented sugars, &c.) varies con- 
siderably in the Victorian port-shiraz group, and to a far greater 
extent than occurs in similar wines of European origin. 
For our clarets the individual variations in extract are less 
marked; the average, however, is above that of the French 
clarets?°, exceeding the latter by nearly 7 grammes per litre. 
In the sherry group the individual variations are very marked, 
although the average lies close to that of imported wines. 
The hock-chablis group shows fairly large variations -from the 
mean, but agrees closely with that of French and German wines 
of the same type. 
The acidity of the Victorian fortified wines need not be dis- 
cussed at length, but may be dismissed with the remark that the 
differences shown are excessive. [or the dry wines of the claret 
and hock-chablis types the averages are close to those of the 
French and German wines. This result seems unexpected, but 
if the criticism of the expert tasters be taken into consideration, 
it will be noticed that a large number of the wines are classed 
as sour and unsound, and it is to these that the apparent high 
average acidity is due. If these are excluded, the total acidity 
becomes much lower, in fact, too low to enable the wines to be 
considered on the average as either true hocks or clarets. 
In this connection the opinion of the well-known authority, Pro- 
fessor L. Roos, Director of the Génological Station of the Hérault, 
is worty of serious attention’? :—‘‘ All dry wines to be of good 
quality should contain 8.6 grammes of total acids per litre, ecal- 
culated as tartaric acid. All wines favourably judged by expert 
wine-tasters always possess a relatively high acidity, which is 
never below the figures given.” But as far back as 1851 the 
illustrious Liebig?* showed how important the amount of acidity 
in the must is in the production of high-class wines, and also that 
“wines made in hot climates from over-ripe grapes are always 
deficient in acidity and never of good quality.” 
It has been shown previously, at the meeting of this Associa- 
tion held in Adelaide in 189529, that, as the must result of an 
examination of 119 musts palliectdd during vintage time, the ratio 
25 Weinstatistik fiir Dentetblands Zeitschrift fiir Aamlytiene Chemie. 1885, et seg. 
26 Viard. Traité Général, &c. Ibid. 
27 L. Roos. L’Industrie Vinicole Méridionale. Montpellier. 1898. 
= Letters on Chemistry. Third edition. 1851. 
9 The Sugar Strength and Acidity of Victorian Musts, with Reference to the Alcoholic 
Strengtii of Victorian Wines. A.A.A.S. Adelaide. 1893. 
