76 



WINE. 



nature, gum Arabic has been used instead of them. 

 In Spain, the white wines are sometimes clarified 

 with fuller's earth : powdered marble, gypsum, 

 heated flints, beech-wood chips, sand, c., are also 

 used. 



When the wine has thus been prepared, it is al- 

 most always medicated, as it is called, before it is 

 ready for the market ; and very little wine is, in 

 fact, a simple or natural liquor. One of the most 

 common processes of medication is mixing different 

 wines together, sometimes of the same quality or 

 country, but often of different ones. For this 

 purpose, that season is chosen in which the wines 

 show a disposition to renew their fermentation. 

 They are then said to bear the fret ; and the ope- 

 ration is called fretting-in. The mixing different 

 wines always disturbs both, so that they tend to 

 ferment again ; and when the fermentation is de- 

 termined, they form a proper compound. In the 

 wine countries, particular grapes (rough, or colour- 

 ed, or astringent, or high-flavoured) are cultivated 

 for the mere purpose of mixing their juice with 

 that of others. Another process is that of mixing 

 brandy with the natural liquor. The tendency of 

 this substance, thus mixed, is to decompose the 

 wines in process of time, causing the extractive 

 matter, or mucilage, to be deposited, as well as the 

 colour, and, at the same time, to destroy their light- 

 ness and flavour. Few wines naturally possess 

 much flavour ; and the same is true, to a great de- 

 gree, of colour. It is therefore a part of the busi- 

 ness of the manufacturer to communicate, artificial- 

 ly, such a flavour and colour as the taste of the 

 customer demands. This result is obtained in 

 various ways, some of which continue a secret. 

 The flavour, however, is often generated by the 

 application of bitter almonds, oak chips, orris-root, 

 wormwood, rose-water, &c., while colour is pro- 

 duced by the use of dye-woods, logwood, &c., ber- 

 ries, oak chips, burnt sugar, iron, &c. Both pro- 

 cesses require to be managed with great delicacy 

 and skill. 



Wines are red, when the black grape, with its 

 skin, has been used, and of more or less yellowish- 

 white colour, when the white grape, or even when 

 the black grape, freed of its skin, has been em- 

 ployed. Wines, with respect to their properties, 

 may be divided into three principal divisions, viz., 

 1. the astringent or dry wines; such are those of 

 Alicant, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Sherry, Madeira, &c. 

 These wines contain a small quantity of tannin, 

 which gives them a taste more or less harsh. 2. 

 The sweet wines, such are Malaga, Rota, Rivesal- 

 tes, Lunel, &c., containing a tolerably large quan- 

 tity of sugar, which has escaped fermentation. And, 

 3. the foaming or sparkling wines, such as cham- 

 pagne, which, being bottled up before they have 

 undergone a perfect fermentation, contain a large 

 quantity of carbonic acid gas in solution. All the 

 wines give, on analysis, very nearly the same pro- 

 ducts, viz. water, alcohol, a little mucilage, colour- 

 ing principles, supertartrate of potassa, tartrate o 

 lime, acetic acid ; and some of them contain, be- 

 sides, carbonic acid ; finally, a very volatile princi- 

 ple, which has not as yet been isolated, and to which 

 the peculiar flavour or bouquet of the wine has been 

 attributed. To the presence of alcohol they are 

 principally indebted for their stimulant and diffusi 

 ble properties; and this principle, which maybe 

 separated by distillation, exists in them in very 

 different proportions, as may be perceived by the 

 following table, drawn up by Mr Brande : 



Humet of the tt'inti, Matt and Spirt tuou* Liquor*, and the 

 Proportion of Alcohol (ipecific gravity 0-825) in one Aun- 

 dred fart* oj their Liquid* by Meaturt. 



Lissa (average) .... 



Marsala (average) . . 



Port (average) 

 Madeira, and red or Burgundy Madeira 



age) ..... 



Xi-res or Sherry (average) . . 



IVn.'ritte 



Lachryma Christ! ... 

 Constantia (white) ... 



Ditto (red) ... 

 Lisbon . . .. 



Cape Muscat .... 

 i;,m ill.m (average) ... 

 Malaga .... 



Hermitage (white) ... 



Malmey Madeira ... 

 Lunel 



Bordeaux wine or claret (average) 

 Sauterne ..... 

 Burgundy (average) ... 

 Nice 



Champagne (still) . 



Ditto (sparkling) . 

 Red Hermitage . 



Vin de Gravtf 

 Frontignac .. 

 Cote rotie ... 

 Rhenish wine (average) 

 Tokay 



Gooseberry wine 

 Cider (highest average) . 

 1 )itto (lowest ditto) . 

 Mead 



Ale (average) .. 

 Brown stout .. 

 Porter (average) 

 Small beer 



Brandy . 



Rum . 



Gin 



Whiskey ... 

 Irish ditto 



29-41 

 25-09 

 > 39 

 - 



22-27 

 1!H7 

 19-79 

 19-70 

 19-75 

 18-92 

 18-94 

 18-25 

 18-13 

 17-26 

 17'43 

 16'40 

 15-58 

 15-10 

 14-23 



14-63 

 13-80 

 1261 

 12-32 

 13'37 



12-32 

 12-08 

 9'88 



9'87 

 7-:i2 



6'80 

 4'20 

 1'28 

 63'39 

 53-68 

 51-60 

 54'32 

 53-90* 



The action of wines upon the animal economy de- 

 pends principally upon the quantity of alcohol they 

 contain. However, a certain given quantity of 

 wine does not act in the same way as a mixture of 

 alcohol and water in the same proportions; and 

 certain wines, yielding on distillation very nearly 

 the same proportion of alcohol, do not inebriate 

 with the same facility. This difference must be 

 ascribed to the various kinds of combinations in 

 which alcohol exists in these complex products. 

 Astringent wines act as tonics and stimulants ; and 

 the sparkling wines, which act so promptly and so 

 powerfully on the brain, notwithstanding the small 

 proportion of alcohol they contain, exercise like- 

 wise a very decided diuretic influence. 



In regard to the dietetic or medical qualities of 

 the different sorts of wines, we copy the following 

 observations from Henderson's valuable work (His- 

 tory of Wines, quarto, 1824), from which we have 

 borrowed largely in compiling this article. " 1. 

 Among the brisk wines, champagne may be con- 

 sidered the best, and is the least noxious, even when 

 drunk in considerable quantity. The wines of 



* Upon this subject Henderson remarks, that some of the 

 wines analysed by Brande, were mixed with a considerable 

 quantity of adventitious alcohol, and furnishes the following 

 additions and corrections : 



Lissa 15-90 



Claret ..... 12-91 



Constantia . . ' 



Marsala ..... 1841 



Rhenish 



Johannisberger . 



Rudesheimer <1811) . . . . 1 



Ditto (1800) .... 12*2 



Many of these wines are, indeed, artificially compounded ; but 

 it is their artificial strength that it is most desirable to under- 

 stand, because they are rarely found in a natural state. It 

 should be also observed that much of the wine here analysed is 

 brandied expressly for the taste of the British market, wher, 

 a* observed, we rarely receive it in a purer condition. 



