I 315 j 



XLVIII. Observations upon Alicant Wine, and particularly 

 the Alicant Raisin Wine. By M. Pissis, M. D.* 



Alicant wine, one of the most precious cordials in phar- 

 macy, has the agreeable colour of red wine added to the 

 mildness of a wine made of must, and it is generally allowed 

 that it has been prepared in this manner. It is evident that 

 the must which produced it had been coloured before fer- 

 mentation. The only raisin yet known to furnish this kind 

 of must is called the Plant of Alicant ; in our country it is 

 known by the name of teiniurier, or tachant. It is bitter, 

 and ripens badly in the centre part of France; but the 

 further we advance to the southward the better are the wines 

 it produces, and the more do they resemble the wines of 

 Spain. I have no hesitation in saying, that with the culti- 

 vation and treatment resorted to at Alicant, we may be able 

 to imitate the Spanish wines in the south maritime districts 

 of France. 



The colouring matter of the Alicant raisin is the same 

 as that of the red fruits and common red wines ; it has the 

 singular property of becoming red by the acids : although 

 blue by nature, it becomes green with the alkalis, and the 

 colour is destroyed by the strong oxygenating substances ; 

 but in the common raisin this colouring matter is not dis- 

 solved except by alcohol, when the must has fermented : 

 while in the teiniurier, and the most of the red fruits, it is 

 diluted in their juice. Is the nature of this matter changed 

 in these different fruits, or is it always the same? and is it 

 not, except by means of intermediate substances, resinous 

 or extractive, that this principle is dissolved equally well by 

 the aqueous juices as by alcohol ? Several experiments in- 

 cline me towards the latter opinion : besides, it is more con- 

 formable tip the simple and constant progress of nature ; it 

 is also that of M. Chaptal, who, in his Essay upon Wines, 

 refers the colouring principle of red wine to the fecula. 



My object is not to expatiate more upon this principle; I 

 have already described it fully in a letter written to M. Cbap- 



• Aniialtt de Chime, tome lvji. p. 6, 



Vol. 88. No. 100. Sept. 1806. H tal, 



