WINE. 



197 



flows from hem. In less favorable climates, where the rains of au- 

 tumn prevent the drying of the clusters upon the vine stocks, the 

 same tiling is effected by laying the bunches upon straw in open or 

 well-aired granaries or sheds. It is with the must procured from 

 grapes so treated, that the sweet and often strong wines, which are 

 called vins de paille, or straw wines, are obtained. Wines when 

 stored in the cask always deposite with time a copious sediment, the 

 lees. This sediment, in which tartar predominates, appears to be 

 the consequence of an increase in the proportion of alcohol in the 

 liquor. The alcohol may increase from two causes : first, by the 

 fermentation which, though nearly insensible, goes on in most wines 

 so long as there is any sugar left unchanged ; and next from mere 

 keeping. It is well known, in fact, that wine j)ut into the best 

 casks, and kept in a well-ventilated cellar, loses a very perceptible 

 quantity by evaporation ; it is found necessary to fill up the casks 

 from time to time : the loss has taken place through the -pores of 

 the wood, in virtue of an attraction exerted between the substance 

 of the wood and the included liquid ; and as this attraction is much 

 greater between the organic matter and water, than between organic 

 fibre and alcohol, it is easy to conceive how wine kept in wood 

 should improve. The very same thing, in fact, appears to go on in 

 regard to wine in corked bottles : the cork does not oppose all 

 evaporation,, and it seems probable that it is not merely upon some 

 new and little known change of a chemical nature in the constitu- 

 tion of the wine that its improvement and mellowing in bottle de- 

 pend, but also upon the loss of a certain quantity of its water through 

 the pores of the cork. 



Throwing quality, flavor, &c., out of the question, it is well known 

 that a vineyard, culivated in the same way, year after year, receiv- 

 ing the same quantity of the same kind of manure, of which the 

 vintage is managed in the same manner, the wine made by the same 

 method, &c., yields a produce which differs greatly in regard to the 

 quantity of alcohol it contains in different years. The vineyard of 

 Schmalzberg, for example, near Lampertsloch, which has been 

 under my management for several years, yields wines of the most 

 dissimilar characters from one year to another. Some idea of this 

 may be formed from the different quantities of alcohol which the 

 wine of different years contains : 



