REPORT OP COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 267 



Summary. 



x 



The volatile acid determination for wines may be determined rapidly 

 and accurately enough for cellar manipulation or buying of wines, by the 

 method described above. The method is simple and the apparatus needed 

 is not expensive or complicated. 



(From the Enology Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, and 

 the Chemical Laboratory of the Italian Swiss Colony, San Francisco, Cal.) 



INFLUENCE OF COMPOSITION ON EFFERVESCENCE OF 

 CHAMPAGNE. PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS. 



R. W. BETTOLI AND J. LA BELLE, 

 Laboratory of Italian-Swiss Colony, San Francisco, Cal. 



The effervescence of the gas or "sparkle" is one of the points considered 

 in judging champagnes. The ordinary procedure, as we understand it, is as 

 follows: The various champagnes are poured into separate glasses and 

 closely watched to note the rate and duration of effervescence. The judges 

 then decide which wine has the most life, sparkle and mousse. This method 

 is obviously open to criticism, as it is subject to many sources of error, so 

 much depends on the method of opening the bottle, the pouring of the wine, 

 the cleanliness of the glasses and the close observation of the judges. 

 Furthermore, the bottles should all be opened at the same time, but when 

 there are many sparkling wines to judge, the wines must be divided into 

 lots which are tested at different times. The results obtained are merely 

 comparative within the lot under consideration, it being a difficult matter to 

 remember the precise action of any bottle of a previous lot. At best, the 

 results are of little scientific value, because they cannot be compared with 

 similar tests conducted by other men. 



It is of value to the wine man to know definitely the action of his 

 champagne or sparkling wine on the table of the consumer. He is also con- 

 cerned in the uniformity of his product. In order to obtain definite and at 

 all times comparable results, we adapted a Lunge's gasvolumeter to accu- 

 rately measure the rate of gas effervescence. 



This apparatus consists of a burette (D), a compensating tube (E), and 

 a leveling tube (F), all connected by means of rubber tubing (G) and partially 

 filed with mercury. By means of the leveling tube the gas is allowed to 

 come off under the same pressure as that of the surrounding atmosphere. 

 This gas is then reduced to standard conditions of O C. and 760 mm. pres- 

 sure by means of the compensating tube. A full description of the apparatus 

 will be found in Sutton, Volumetric Analysis, 9th Ed., p. 594. 



A tap (B) very similar to that used on manometers for measuring the 

 internal pressure of champagnes was connected directly to this apparatus. 

 In this way there was no loss of gas. 



