PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 223 
of total acids to 100 parts of sugar is only 2.8 in Victoria, as 
compared with an average ratio of 4.8 in France and Germany. 
During the vintage of 1894°° similar determinations of acidity 
were made on 196 Victorian musts, with almost identical results. 
We are therefore forced to the conclusion that, to improve the 
quality of our dry wines, it is necessary either to vintage earlier 
than is usual in Victoria or to increase the proportion of acidity 
in the musts by the addition of tartaric acid or second crop®! ; 
to this practice, already current in the South of France and 
Algiers, no exception can be taken, as it adds nothing which does 
not exist naturally in grapes, and is regarded as lawful in Euro- 
pean wine countries. Ifthe export trade demands dry wine of 
high alcoholic strength and low acidity, then, evidently, refrigera- 
tion during the making of such types of wine becomes impera- 
tive in our hot northern viticultural districts. 
The figures for potassium sulphate are interesting, and indicate 
that the practice of “ plastering” must does not obtain to any ex- 
tent in Victoria, as among the 166 wines examined only one ex- 
ceeds the limit of 2 grammes of potassium sulphate per litre 
allowed by law in European wine countries. The averages, how- 
ever, are rather high, and seem to show that the custom of sul- 
phuring is rather freely indulged in. The practice of using sul- 
phuric acid in cleansing casks may be responsible for a certain 
proportion of the potassium sulphate found, especially as it is 
difficult to wash the sulphuric acid completely from the wood. 
This practice might be discontinued and replaced with advantage 
by steam cleansing, more especially as potassium sulphate affects 
the taste of wine detrimentally. 
Professor Kulisch, of the Geisenheim Experiment Station? 2 
has shown that as little as 0.02 gramme of potassium sulphate 
per litre is sufficient to distinctly affect and impart a harsh cha- 
racter to the taste of wine. 
As no previous determinations have been made of the amount 
of potassium sulphate existing normally in Victorian musts, a 
number of sterilised musts (forty-five) from various vineyards 
collected during the vintage of 1894, were examined as to their 
content of potassium sulphate. The average result found was 
0.0072 grammes per litre, as compared with 0.00832 for French 
musts, and 0.0096 for German?4. 
However complete the chemical analysis of wine may be, 
it does not enable its commercial value to be fixed ; it appeared 
advisable, therefore, to submit the samples before analysis to 
expert wine-tasters, in order to gain ee of opinion as to 
3° Proceedings of the Royal Sanieey of Victoria, 1894. 
31 Acidity in Musts. Translated from the Revue de Viticulture 1895. By W. Percy 
Wilkinson. Australian Vigneron. 1895. 
32 Weinlaube, No. 44, 1499. 
33 J. Konig. Chemie der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel. 1893. 
34 Medicus, Weller, Omeis, and Full. Weinstatistik fiir Deutsehland, Zeit. f. Anal. 
Chem. 1895, et seq. 
