8 ON THE AftT OF MAKING WJtfE. 



on which the strength of the wine depends. ThoSe 

 fruits which contain the greatest proportion of su- 

 gar, furnish the strongest wine ; the alcohol ge- 

 nerated in the act of fermentation, being always 

 found to bear a proportion to the pre-existing su- 

 gar. The principal defect in our domestic fruits 

 is the small proportion of sugar which they con- 

 tain ; but it is at the same time that which we are 

 most easily able to remedy ; and it is on this basis in- 

 deed that the whole system of our domestic wine 

 manufacture is founded. But even in this part of the 

 process, difficulties occur, and lead to the imperfect 

 fermentation of these wines, and the consequent 

 sweetness by which they are too often character- 

 ized. The saccharine matter has indeed been con- 

 sidered as existing in two distinct states in veget- 

 ables, that of pure sugar and that of the sweet 

 principle ; but it is perhaps more correct to con- 

 sider sugar as an artificial substance formed by 

 chemistry from the sweet principle, the only state 

 in whrch sugar truly exists in vegetables. The 

 sweet principle is characterized by its want of ten- 

 dency to crystallize, and by the facility with 

 which, on the addition of water,- it runs into fer- 

 mentation. Sugar, on the contrary, is crystalliz- 

 able, and has no tendency to ferment, except in as 

 far as it contains a portion of the sweet principle, 

 or of that peculiar substance by which this prin- 

 ciple is distinguished from sugar. If a solution 

 of pure sugar in water be allowed to repose, k 



