32 ON THE ART OF MAKING WINK. 



pends collectively on the proportion of sugar in the 

 entire fluid, on the due proportion of the leaven to 

 that sugar, and on the perfection of the fermenta- 

 tion. The whole of the sugar is seldom decom- 

 posed during the first process of fermentation ; 

 but a proportion is generally attached even to 

 the wines considered dry, long after they are 

 tunned or bottled. It is only by a slow continua- 

 tion of the same actions in casks and bottles, a 

 process often requiring many years for its comple- 

 tion, that the sugar entirely vanishes, and the 

 liquor is found to consist of alcohol, combined 

 with the other matters which join it to form wine. 

 It is important to consider the effects produced on 

 wine by a portion of undecomposed sugar remain- 

 ing in it. As long as this exists, the acetic fer- 

 mentation cannot take place, and it therefore offers 

 a test of security against this result, in our ill 

 made domestic wines. In the natural wines, the 

 balance of principles appears to prevent this oc- 

 currence, even when all the sugar hus disappear- 

 ed, and thus Hock, Claret and Madeira, seem to 

 be possessed of the power of endless duration. 



All care will be unavailing, if the process of 

 fermentation, and its application to practice, be 

 not thoroughly understood ; and I shall therefore 

 deduce from the general doctrines laid down 

 above, some further rules which have been cur^ 

 sorily passed over. If all the favourable circum- 

 gtances already described are present, the act of 



