t- 



WIXK MANUFACTURE. 



WINE MANUFACTURE. 



Bx*d . : untity, the acids tod saccharine matter are variable. When 

 there i mora saccharine matter, u in Riveultea, Frontignan, and 

 T. kmy. than there U gluten to transform into alcohol, portion of 

 undcoompoMd stuiar remains, sufficient not only to give that Ute 

 wliich has acquired for them the name of imrf winr. but alao to exert 

 the usual presenrativv power of sugar, when present in Urge quantities, 

 and resist decomposition. Thus. Muscadine wine haa bean kept two 

 hundred year* ; Mountain, buried at the time of the Fire of London, 

 and disinterred in 1811, wa excellent; and old Tokay, called vine 

 ri'ntnw, U in perfection at the end of a century. This wine needs 

 neither sulphuring nor fining (Sohams, Ungaros Weinbau,' enter 

 baH. p. 75) ; the oaska are hermetically bunged ; and the reason is 

 obvious. To the juioe of grapes grown in colder climates or cold 

 masons, sugar, especially starch-sugar, is added at the beginning of the 

 fermentation, in order to consume all the leaven. Also to wine which 

 it is apprehended U about to become sour, or pricked, as the first sign 

 of ito becoming acetified is termed, sugar is sl*o added ; but if vinegar 

 has really been formed, this introduction of sugar, so far from hind, r- 

 ing, only hastens the further transformation, as the presence of vinegar 

 is the most powerfully disposing agent to this change. 



The odoriferous principle, or tenqiul, of wines, appears to be due to 

 peculiar ether*, or KTHKRFAL SALTS, and, according to Winckler, to 

 eon 1 1 illations of volatile fragrant acids with a nitrogenous base of 

 balsamic odour. The conditions of the formation and of the decom- 

 position of these compounds are not very well understood at present ; 

 some of the ethers, however, can be formed artificially. 



The intoxicating quality of wine is. of course, due to the alcokol, the 

 cause of the production of which has already been described. The 

 method of ascertaining the amount of alcohol present in any sample, 

 and a table showing the centesimal projMrtions of alcohol in varioua 

 wines, will be found described under AI.COHOLOMETIIV. 



/" anil*, or acidulous salts, ore present in most wines. Malic, 

 Urtario, and citric are commonly met with. Port wine contains tannic 

 acid, and the briskness of effervescent wines is due to carbonic acid. 

 This natural acidity of wine must not be confounded with the sourness 

 which wine sometimes acquires, and which is due to acetic acid, gene- 

 rated by oxidation of alcohol, as already described. 



The mlotmng matter of nine U derived from the husk of the grape. 

 If wine be prepared from the expressed juice only, it will have little or 

 no colour, as in the case of Champagne ; but if the skin be also present, 

 its colour will go into solution during the process of fermentation, and 

 will give the characteristic tint to the resulting wine. The presence 

 or absence of the purple skin, therefore, and not the colour of the 

 grape, as popularly supposed, determines the colour of wine. 



The chief mime constituent of wine is bitartrate of potash, c . 

 done, or an ol, an it is technically termed. It is the commercial source 

 of tarUuic acid, and has already been treated of in detail. [TARTARIO 

 ACID.] 



Wines are much adulterated. For the English market they are 

 commonly " fortified " with brandy, and superior varieties are fre- 

 quently diluted with those of inferior quality. Elderberry juice, called 

 Cheripigo, also the juice of P/>yio>acea drrandra, boiled must, and burnt 

 sugar are used for colouring; kino and logwood are used for the same 

 purpose, and to augment the (stringency of port wine ; and occasionally 

 ' ethers are added to give flavour. 



\\ INK MANUFACTl'RK. Wine is the result of the fermentation 

 of certaiu snccharine fluids either existing naturally in the juices of 

 plants, or artificially blended together. The natural juices snsecptil.lu 

 of fermentation are found either in the roots of plants, such as the 

 parsnip and beet-root: extracted from the stem, as in the birch and 

 cocoa-palm ; expressed from the leaves, as in the grape-vine ; obtained 

 from the spatha. as of the Hagtu rin'fera, the 1'lm mj- il<irt,/l/fera, and 

 other palms ; and in the mature or immature fruiU of many well- 

 known plants, such as gooseberries, currants, and, above all, the 

 grai, to the fermented juice of wlii.-h the term wine is always 

 understood to be applied when used absolutely. Though alcohol is 

 present in all wines, yet many other principles exist in them ; the 

 number of which, and the manner in which they arc blended together, 

 as well as their relative proportion, give to dillercnt wines their dis- 

 tinctive properties. 



The . a, the only species which yields the most esteemed 



wiiif, ha*, from receiving th- lined attention and culture of 



man, a very extensive geographical range. [Viris in NAT. HIST lliv ] 

 .".4" or almost 56 N lat. to 45* 8. lat, the vine may bo fomul ; 

 but it by no means yields a grape fit for fermenting into a sound good 

 wine in all the intermediate space. Up to the 51st degree of N. lat. 

 the preparation of this beverage is conducted with various degrees of 

 lucoesi and diversities in the qualities of the wines. In the hotter 

 countries alone are the rich sweet wines, often called in technical 

 language Vim de /.i'/ntnri, prepared, as in those only is so much 

 sugar present as to allow the fermentation to furnish sufficient of 

 the vinous principles to the product, when the fermentation ceases 

 from the leaven being all expended. The Muscat grape, which in the 

 south of France yields the rich sweet wines termed Krontignan, Lunel, 

 and Hivrsaltes, on the Rhine only ripenn sufficiently to furnish a grape 

 for the table or dessert. Nor does the same latitude always permit 

 the grape to acquire the perfection requisite for good wine. The 

 isothermal lines and the degree of humidity, especially the clearness or 



cloudiness of the atmosphere, have more influence. Thus in France 

 the beneficial cultivation of the vine scarcely extends on the western 

 side higher than 46', but the boundary-line mounts upwards towards 

 the east t'll we find the most renowned of the Hhine wines produced 

 between 50* and 51. The longitude of Devonshire is nearly that of 

 the province of Spain which yields the finest sherries ; an 1 ii U not 

 alone the difference of 14 degrees of latitude which unfit* the south of 

 England for ripening a grape suitable for wine, since that p.: 1 

 the Rhine which lies between Coblcus aim -xlucvs 



good wine, has precisely the same latitude; but the greater humidity 

 and cloudiness of the atmosphere in the -nth-west of England, l>y 

 intercepting the sun's rays, prevent the full ripening of the gru| 

 the same reason, Holland scarcely produces grapes possessing 

 enough to yield wine (Mulder) ; and the observations of Dr. 1> 

 have proved that the ripening of fruits depends more on the illumi- 

 nating rays than on the calorific or chemical rays. The specious 

 held out by some writers that the grape might be cultivated in I 

 so as to yield wine, would soon be dissipated by any extensive 

 which it U to be desired may never be made. (Barton's ' 

 the Geography of Hants;' and Watson, ' Geograp! <utiou 



'if UritUli Plants.') 



But different climates, though they may equally permit the gi 

 ripen, yet improsa on it peculiarities easily dist 



produced by the same kind of grape. Tims the Hock : i kiml 



of wine possessed of distinct qualities when grown along tin Mam or 

 Rhine; the aaroe sort of grapes, grown near Lisbon, yield BuccllaH, which 

 only retains some of the peculiarities of the original ; the 

 at the Cape of Good Hope yield what is termed Cape II 

 bearing any resemblance to the true Rhenish ; while th 

 Madeira, produced by the same sort of grapes, though a, delicious wine, 

 has acaroely a quality, except durability, like that of the original, 

 local influence* produce effects which are alike inexplicable and 

 table These, though generally attributed to tin- soil, are not . 

 or solely owing to ita composition and qualities. In eon 

 the soil is the main cause of difference, as se. n in :h 



"I'll.- climate there U most favourable to the growth 

 yet in one small space only U a tolerable wine prodm ed, the two con- 

 tiguous farms of the Great and Little Constantia yielding, the i 

 the red sweet wine, the latter the white Constantia : the soil on which 

 they grow is decomposed sandstone. Where no appreciable diti 

 of soil can be pointed out, differences arise from the cultivation of a 

 different kind of grape. It is stated, on the authority of 

 (' Pflanzen-Geographie,' p. 369 of English translation, published by the 

 Ray Society), that there are instances " of the same variety of vine 

 being planted on the side of a hill or mountain, and the wine which U 

 the produce of the grapes from the highest parts of the mountain will 

 differ essentially from the wine which is the produce of the grapes of 

 the lower part of the mountain. The wines known Uy the name, of 

 Johannisberger and Rudesheinu r in Hermany are the produce < 

 growing close together, and resembling each other in external ch.t 

 motors. The vineyards also that produce the Leistenwein, \Vurz- 

 burger, and Steinurin are very near to each other. It is probable 

 that this difference is owin.- to the uom]ioition of the soil." 'I In-, is 

 not altogether correct Johannixberg is only l.'i'i feet above the level 

 of the Rhine, and it is quite certain that the. produce of the i-umtnit, 

 close to the castle or Addons of Joh.iunisberg, is of a quality vastly 

 superior to the produce of the place called Johanniabergerhohl, not 

 from any peculiar or insurmountable cause, but because the I 

 belonging to Prince Metternich land the adjacent parts to some other 

 large proprietors), can n mount of careful and skilful treat- 



ment, which the other, being divided among a number , 

 prietors, never does. This subdivision is the cause of an annual loss 

 of many thou-nii'ln of pounds. (Bronner, ' Weinbau in Su'd OeuUoh- 

 kind, Dritte Heft,' p. 113.) The grape cultivated in both places U 

 the little Hie.-liiix (!>" Klcinc Jitrtliun of gome, Wooer AI'I*/ 

 others; the Vi it vinifera puflla of Babo and Metzgera ' \Veiti und 

 Tafeltrauben der Deutscheti Weiuberge und Garten,' Heft viii. 

 but in the vineyard of Prince Metternich and the other great pro- 

 prietors three gatherings of the grapes are made as they reach matin itv, 

 and other measures are adopted to ensure a produce of the i 

 excellence. Besides the protection of the castle wall, the wli 

 since 1824 been surrounded with a stone wall 10 feel hi^li. Thin 

 greatly promotes the steady progress to maturity of the grapes by 

 securing a quiescent state of the air, which in known to be extremely 

 beneficial, and uln.h. \\lnn imitated on a small scale in this country 

 by surrounding a bunch of grapes with n muslin bag, forwards ite 

 ripening very much. The wine, of Lugineland nnd the Liebiniucnmilcli 

 owe their superiority over that of the neighbouring vineyards t<> the 

 protection of the town-wall of Worms, (llnnm. i . Heft ii., pp. 1 

 The advantage of protection against agitation of the air is so v. e!l 

 understood in the Rheingau. that the belts of vineyards which el, .the 

 the height of Hochheim bring very different prices, according to their 

 position. One morgen, close to the bed of the. river Main, brings in 

 the market two thousand florins ; a higher morgen brings one th. 

 florins; and one at the summit onh five hundred. (Bromiei, iii., 

 p. 1 4.) 'I he geognoxtic character of the soil of Johannisberg in argil- 

 laceous schist, with a very moderate proportion of mica, and 

 place passes into a reddish quartz, which is very hard, and undergoes 



