424 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



elderbenies, etc., are used instead of grapes 

 in making it, the product is generally distin- 

 guished as domestic or homemade wine. Di- 

 rections for making all the different kinds of 

 homemade wines are given under the special 

 fruit from which each is made ; and informa- 

 tion as to the choice and serving of the various 

 wines commonly used in this country is given 

 under the name of each. We shall confine 

 ourselves here, therefore, to a few general ob- 

 servations which will apply equally to all 

 wines. 



The quantity of alcohol is the first element 

 which determines their price. A duty is levied 

 on all wines coming into this country, and 

 those containing less than a certain percentage 

 of alcohol pay less than those containing more. 

 The proportion of alcohol in the stronger 

 wines has been determined by Brande as fol- 

 lows : 



Wine Alcohol, 



ine- per cent. 



Tokay 9.15 



Hermitage, Red 11.40 



Champagne 11.65 



Vin de Grave 11.84 



Burgundy 12.20 



Hock 13.31 



Bordeaux Claret 13.63 



Marsala 15.14 



Wine. 



Alcohol, 

 per cent. 



Roussillon 15.96 



Hermitage, White. . . . 16.14 



Lisbon 17.45 



Sherry 17.63 



Constantia 18.29 



Madeira 20.31 



Port 21.75 



Wines, however, are not consumed for their 

 alcohol alone ; they contain other ingredients 

 which they derive from the grape juice, which 

 give them taste and flavor. Thus, when fer- 

 mentation of the grape juice is not complete, a 

 certain quantity of sugar is left, and according 

 to the quantity of sugar left wines are said to 

 be "sweet" or " dry." While hocks, clarets, 

 and other light wines contain little or no sugar, 

 port, sherry, and champagne always contain a 

 large amount. In the case of port and sherry 

 this sugar is added during the manufacture, in 

 order to enable them to bear exportation. 



There are three other qualities in wines 

 which demand some consideration. The first 

 is what is called the bouquet and the flavor. 

 These things are sometimes confounded, but 

 they are really different. The vinous flavor is 

 common to all wines, but the bouquet is pecul- 

 iar to certain wines. The substance which 

 gives flavor to all wines is oenanthic ether, and 

 it is formed during the fermentation of the 

 grape juice. The bouquet of wines is formed in 

 the same way by some of the acids found in the 

 grape juice after fermentation combining with 

 the ethyl of the alcohol, and forming ethers. 

 These are the things which make one wine more 

 pleasant to drink than another, and which 

 give their high prices to the best wines. They 

 are not detectable by any chemical agency ; 

 but it is the taste of these bouquets, and noth- 

 ing else, which gives to one wine the value of 

 five dollars a bottle, and to another fifty cents, 



when all other qualities are precisely the same. 

 The second point in the nature of wines is 

 their color. Some wines are what is called 

 "red "and others are "white." Ports, clar- 

 ets, burgundies, are all red ; also many other 

 wines. The red colors of these wines have 

 been analyzed with some care, but they do not 

 seem to exert any influence upon the system. 

 The most important agent in them is tannic 

 acid, or tannin, which exists in some wines to 

 a very large extent, and which is produced by 

 the skins of the grapes used in making the 

 wine. It gives an astringency to red wines 

 which is not found in white. The other color- 

 ing matters described by chemists are blue and 

 brown. These also come from the skins of the 

 grapes, and the latter is found in dark white 

 wines as well as in red. 



The other matters which give a character to 

 wines are the saline compounds. These sub- 

 stances, which constitute the ashes of all vege- 

 table tissues, exist in a varying quantity in all 

 fruits, and are found dissolved in the juices of 

 fruit ; hence we find them remaining in wine 

 after fermentation of the juice. The most 

 abundant of these salts is bitartrate of potash 

 (cream of tartar). Besides this, wines contain 

 tartrate of lime, tartrate of alumina, tartrate of 

 iron, chloride of sodium, chloride of potassium, 

 sulphate of potash, and phosphate of alumina. 

 These salts occur in the proportion of from 

 one to four parts in the one thousand of wine. 

 They do not make much difference in the 

 flavor or action of wines ; but their presence 

 or absence is one of the surest indications of 

 the genuineness of a wine. Those who manu- 

 facture wines with alcohol and water and add 

 a certain quantity of good wine to give a flavor, 

 do not usually add these mineral constituents, 

 which are always the best test of a pure wine. 



Champagne. The most celebrated of 

 the French wines, chiefly produced in the prov- 

 ince of that name. It is generally understood 

 in this country to be a brisk, effervescing, 

 sparkling white wine of a peculiar flavor ; but 

 this is only one of several varieties. There 

 are both red and white champagnes, and both 

 of them may be either sparkling or still ; the 

 sparkling wines are called mousseux, and the 

 still non-mowseux. The sparkling are most 

 highly esteemed, on account of their delicate 

 flavor, and the agreeable pungency which is 

 given them by the carbonic acid they contain. 

 There *is a great difference in the quality of 

 champagne wines, according to the particular 

 vineyards at which they have been made. The 

 finest are produced in the sloping grounds on 

 the north bank of the river Marne ; and they 

 are mostly white wines. Owing to excessive 

 adulterations and intoxicating effects cham- 



