MMiscellanies. 193 
When the sale of wine is not pressing, and care is taken to keep 
the vases which contain them full, and they are allowed to undergo 
a slow and insensible fermentation and are exposed to the change 
of temperature which the season brings round, this disease spontane- 
ously disappears. It is rare that yreased wines thus treated, are not 
cured in passing through the cold of one winter. 
The attention of chemists has been much engaged with the na- 
ture of this quality in wine. M. Francois, of Chalons sur Marne as- 
cribes it to a substance which is found also in the gluten of wheat 
flour, and which M. Taddei an Italian chemist, discovered and na- 
Gliadine. It is the portion which is soluble in alcohol,—the 
insoluble portion he called Zimome. If an alcoholic solution of 
gliadine be added to clear wine, it becomes milky and assumes, ac- 
cording to M. Frangois, the aspect of greased wine. Berzelius, how- 
ever, does not believe in the Gliadine of Taddei. He considers it 
to be gelatine and the zimome to be albumen, both of which have 
been long known to exist in gluten. The same chemist has proved 
that vegetable and animal gelatine are identical in the properties of 
uniting with tannin and forming an insoluble precipitate. However 
this may be, Mr. F. has been induced to regard tannin as a remedy 
for the grease of wine. 
He accordingly makes an observation which seems to have esca- 
ped all those who had previously examined the subject, that red wines 
are never subject to the grease. Now the difference between red and 
white wines is that the red always ferments in presence of the husk 
and seeds of the grape, substances which contain tannin in abun- 
dance, while white wine remains in contact with the husk but a very 
short time. 
It is also a fact that light winesmade of grapes deprived of their 
seeds are more subject to this disease than others. Hence it is prob- 
able that the presence of tannin ie by precipitating the gelatine, 
prevent the phenomena of the gre 
The following are M. Frangoie's Ss ig aig By adding tannin 
to wine a month or six weeks prior to bottling, it may be preserv- 
ed from the grease; and this substance being one of those which 
exists in wine, it may be added without fear, for it communicates no 
unnatural odor or taste. ‘Twenty grains of tannin to a bottle of wine, 
or three and a half ounces to a hundred bottles previously well de- 
canted from all See is the ier? dose, although in frequent 
Vou.—XXiIl. N 
oO 
Qn 
