ON THE ART OF MAKING WINE. 79 



inferior classes of Champagne wines, and under a 

 different mode, a wine resembling Barsac, and the 

 lighter of the Bourdeaux wines. An increase of 

 the sugar to three pounds, will yield a wine equal 

 in strength to the best sorts of Champagne, or if 

 fermented to dryness, to the strongest of the white 

 wines of Bourdeaux. Larger doses of sugar, will 

 doubtless yield wines of different qualities, but of 

 such proportions I cannot speak from experience. 

 I may only caution the operator who shall under- 

 take these trials, that larger quantities of sugar 

 require larger proportions of fruit, if it be his in- 

 tention to work the wine to dryness, as the quan- 

 tity of fruit above-mentioned, is but barely suf- 

 ficient to convert the proportion of three pounds 

 above named. With regard to the durability of 

 these wines, I may add, that I have kept them for 

 seven years, and during all that time with evi- 

 dent improvement. I should consider them to be 

 -as little liable to destruction, as foreign wines of 

 the very bzstfctbrique. 



While, on the subject of sugar, I may alsq say, 

 that the general cause of failure in those wines 

 which are made in this country from ripe grapes, 

 is the deficiency of sugar, and that even these 

 would be much improved by an addition of it. 

 It is owing to this deficiency that these wines are 

 perishable, and easily converted into vinegar, the 

 natural must being too aqueous to produce a du- 

 pble ^yine. The proportion of sugar need not 



