50 = Researches on Wines and other Fermented Liquors. 
some of them have kept two hundred or three hundred years ; and 
in Strasburg, there is a cask four hundred years old, and many, 
above seventy ; the wine being occasionally racked off into smaller 
casks, that the vessel may be continually full. These very old 
wines, are preserved, rather for curiosity than use, as they not only 
grow too strong for drinking, but at last, quite disagreeable.” 
The preservation of wines forso long a time, when the process 
of distillation was still unknown, and in cases where no brandy had 
been added, as in the German wines, referred to by Neuman, seems 
to prove conclusively, that the admixture of brandy, or other distil- 
led liquor, is not necessary to effect this object. 
Nor is it probable, that the strength of the wine is much influen- 
ced by the brandy, as ordinarily employed. The pure juice of the 
grape, after a few years, becomes fully as alcoholic, as those wines 
which have been brandied. Mr. Brande procured port wine, sent 
from Portugal, for the express purpose of ascertaining how long it 
would remain sound, without any addition whatever, of spirit, hav- 
ing been made to it, but it did not differ, materially, in the propor- 
tion of alcohol, from other kinds. Moreover the raisin wine, which 
had been fermented without any addition of spirit, contained a larger 
amount of alcohol than any other wine in his tables. 
As the alcohol in natural wines, is the produce of the sugar con- 
tained in the grape, if any part of the sugar escapes decomposition, 
the wine will contain alcohol, and unaltered sugar, and will be sweet. 
Now, in those grapes, which contain a large proportion of sugar, 
and in which, there is a sufficiency of yeast present, to decompose 
it, there will be a superabundance of alcohol. But, the alcohol thus 
formed, stops the fermentation, and the same effect is also produced 
by the admixture of brandy or spirit. 
On the contrary, where the relative quantities of yeast, sugar and 
water, are such as will conduce to a perfect attenuation, the fermen- 
tation will proceed until the whole of the sugar is converted into al- 
cohol. The result, under such circumstances, will be a full bodied, 
spirituous, sound, and as it is technically termed, a dry wine. 
The addition of alcohol, during the fermentation of the must, 
therefore, is to be conducted upon fixed principles and with a strict 
reference to the deficiences in the ingredients of the grape. An 
indiscriminate admixture of spirit, either during the fermentation, 
or after that process has ceased, would be attended with hazard to 
the flavor and value of the wine. 
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