WINE 1149 



From the known prices of these wines, it is obvious that the proportion of alcohol, 

 although one factor in determining the value of a wine, is not the only absolute one 

 nor does it stand in any fixed relation to the commercial value of the wine. It is 

 remarkable that the finest sorts of wines contain a much greater proportion of solid 

 substances in solution than the inferior sorts ; and that the weight of the residue, which 

 the Khenish wines yield on evaporation, offers a safer criterion for determining their 

 commercial value than the proportion of alcohol. These solids disguise the acid, take 

 off the acrid taste, and at the same time impart body, mellowness, and oiliness. 

 Among the extractive matters of new wines are sugar, which gradually disappears by 

 keeping ; and also some imperfectly known gummy substances, which become brown- 

 ish when the wine is submitted to evaporation. The presence of these in wine appears 

 chiefly to be determined by the soil, and the condition and locality of the vineyard ; 

 and it is obvious that the qualities dependent upon these extractive matters cannot by 

 replaced by sugar. 



Port is one of the wines which is richest in alcohol. Ginjal has stated that genuine 

 Port wines never contain more than 12 - 75 per cent, of pure alcohol; 



With regard to alcoholic contents, Madeira ranks next to Port wine, in which 

 respect they differ but little from each other. Liquor wines are as a rule stronger 

 than red wines. Juran9on, Lachrymse Christi, Benicario, and Sauterne, all contain 

 from 12 to 15 per cent, alcohol and more. Red French wines contain less from 9 

 to 14 per cent. Good Bordeaux contains 10, 11, 12 per cent. Burgundy 9, 10, 11 

 per cent. Champagne 10, 11 per cent. Ehine wine from 6 to 12 per cent., generally 

 from 9 to 10 per cent. Mulder. 



Under the title of the ' Deacidification of Wines,' Professor Liebig published in his 

 Annalen a process for effecting that valuable object on old stored (die abgdagerte) 

 Ehine wines. ' Most of these wines,' he says, ' even of the most propitious growths, 

 and in the best condition, contain a certain quantity of free tartaric acid, on whose 

 presence many of their essential properties depend. The juice of all sorts of grapes 

 contains bitartrate of potash, and that of those of the young shoots, in good years, is 

 saturated with it. When the must of these sorts of grapes becomes fermented, the tartar 

 diminishes in solubility proportionally as the alcohol increases, and a part of it falls 

 along with the yeast. This deposit of tartar increases during the first years of the 

 vatting ; the sides of the casks become encrusted more and more with its crystals, 

 in consequence of the continual addition of the new wine to replace what of the liquid 

 is lost by evaporation, so as to keep the casks full, and prevent the destruction of the 

 whole. But this deposition has a limit. By the filling up, the wine receives a certain 

 quantity of free tartaric acid, and thereby acquires, at a certain point of con- 

 centration, the faculty of re-dissolving the deposited tartar. In the storing of 

 many of the finer wines, the tartar again disappears at a certain period. By pro- 

 gressive filling up, the proportion of acid proportionally augments, the taste and 

 flavour of the wine are exalted, but the acid contents make the wine less agreeable in 

 use. Amateurs and manufacturers should therefore welcome a means of taking away 

 the free tartaric acid without altering in any respect the quality of the wine. This 

 is pure neutral tartrate of potash. When this salt, in concentrated solution, is added 

 to such a fluid as the above, there results the sparingly soluble tartar (one part 

 of which requires from 180 to 200 parts of water of ordinary temperature for its 

 solution), the free acid combines with the neutral salt, and separates as bitartrate from 

 the liquid. If we add to 100 parts of a wine which contains one part of free tartaric 

 acid, one and a half part of neutral tartrate of potash, there will separate by rest at 1 8 

 19 Cent., 2 parts of crystalline tartar, and the wine contains now one half part of 

 tartar dissolved, in which there are only 0'2 part of the original free acid. In this 

 case 0'8 of the free acid has been withdrawn from the wine.' 



WINES, BRITISH, are made either from infusions of dried grapes (raisins) or 

 from the juices of native fruits, properly fermented. These wines are called sweets in 

 the language of the Excise, under whose superintendence they were placed till 1834, 

 when the duties upon them were repealed, as onerous to the trade and unproductive to 

 the revenue. The raisins called Lexias are said to produce a dry flavoured wine ; the 

 Denias a sweet wine ; the black Smyrnas a strong-bodied wine, and the red Smyrnas 

 and Valencias a rich and full wine. The early spring months are the fittest time for 

 this wine-manufacture. The masses of raisins, on being taken out of the packages, 

 are either beaten with mallets or crushed between rollers in order to loosen them, and 

 are then steeped in water in large vats, between a perforated board at bottom and 

 another at top. The water being after some time drawn off the swollen and softened 

 fruit, pressure is applied to the upper board to extract all the soluble sweet matter, 

 which passes down through the falsa bottom, and flows off by an appropriate pipe into 

 fermenting tuns. The residuary fruit is infused with additional water, and then 

 squeezed : a process which is repeated till all the sweets are drained off, after which 



