316 Olservations upon Alicant Wine. 



We may also conclude, that to clarify the wine or the 

 must of Alicant with animal substances, which will dis- 

 colour them more or less, is attended with inconvenience. 

 The teinturier is not the only fruit which contains tannin j 

 several bitter fruits, without doubt, present it to the che- 

 mists also; it is in the fermented juices that they discover 

 it by the acid of gelatine. 



It is singular that tannin does not give a bad taste to Ali- 

 cant wine, considering the disagreeable taste which common 

 wine derives from being put into a cask of new oak ; but 

 which is easily carried off, as I myself ascertained, by fining 

 down the wine with gelatinous substances. Are there se- 

 veral kinds of tannin which differ in smell ? or is the smell 

 of tannin modified in its union with the colouring principle? 

 This last conjecture appears extremely probable. Wine 

 which has fermented in a new oak tub derives no bad taste 

 from it; we cannot deny that there is here plenty of tannin, 

 which is modified, without doubt, by the fermentation, and 

 assimilated to the tannin of the Alicant wine. 



Purchasers of Alicant wine will now be in possession of 

 a sure and easy method of ascertaining the quality of the 

 wine sold them as Alicant ; a red colour with a slight orange 

 cast, a sweet and spirituous taste with a sharp bitterish fla- 

 vour, and the property of precipitating gelatine,— all these 

 are the characteristics of genuine Alicant wine. Without 

 the last properly in particular, no wine, however good, is 

 genuine Alicant. Boerhaave, in his treatise on nervous dis- 

 eases, complains loudly of dealers who colour their wines 

 with sumach. Red fruits, and even the teinturier itself, 

 are also resorted to for this purpose. Alicant wine is also 

 made in some countries, but the operation is not performed 

 in the Spanish manner. All these wines ought to precipi- 

 tate gelatine more or less ; we must therefore have recourse 

 to attentive tastings, and other proofs already known, in 

 order to discover them. 



The well known nature of Alicant wine enables us to 

 ascertain in what diseases it should be resorted to. The 

 tannin it contains places it at the head of the astringent 



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