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64 WINES. 



No vegetable juice can be made to undergo the vinous fermenta- 

 tion without sugar and a certain fluidity. This sugar comes from the 

 malt in brewing, and in wine-making from the grape; from the apple 

 in cider and the pear in making perry. Most juices go into vinous 

 fermentation soon after being exposed; but artificial solutions of ve- 

 getables, as with malt, require yeast to begin the process. To com- 

 plete vinous fermentation the juice should come from ripe fruit, in 

 which sugar is most abundant, and the flavor is best. With unripe 

 fruit fermentation is imperfect. 



Honey nor sugar ferment without the fluidity of water. All parts 

 of fermenting liquors do not ferment at the same time ; the slowest are 

 the poorest. The first fermentation being checked, the suspended 

 parts are separated, as lees and the acid salt tartar. If the sugar be 

 small the fermentaton soon ceases ; and the liquor exposed to air com- 

 mences acetous fermentation by the absorption of oxygen from it ; the 

 result is vinegar. 



Wine is the product of the vinous fermentation of the grape juice ; 

 and much skill is necessary to regulate the process. The quality de- 

 pends on the sugar and the odoriferous matter contained in the grapes. 

 If these be sufficient and the fermentation is carried to the exact point, 

 the wine is good. If the sugar be in excess, the excess remains; if 

 deficient, the wine is thin and weak. If bottled before fermentation is 

 complete, it continues to disengage carbonic acid gas ; and when the 

 cork is drawn, it sparkles, as with Champaigne, &c. 



Few wines possess much flavor or color; but both of these are fur- 

 nished by the manufacturer, to suit taste and profit. Bitter almonds, 

 oak chips, wormwood, rose-water, &.C., supply the first, and dye-woods, 

 iron, &c., the last. The kinds of wine are the astringent, dry, sweet, 

 foaming, sparkling, &c. The last is generally to be avoided. Bor- 

 delais are most wholesome of light wines and Madeira of the strong. 

 White wines are from white grapes and red from purple, crimson and 

 black grapes, with the husks, which contain the color, aroma and tan- 

 nin, or astringent principle. These are salutary, if the husks be used ; 

 but they are wanting in white wines, which contain most alcohol. Of 

 the nine of these, Malaga is sweetest and Hock the most acidulous. 

 Much of the port wine is said to be made with Brazil rum, logwood 

 and rhatany root. More vessels leave Oporto with wines than the 

 whole of Portugal can produce. The Champaigne and Burgundy are 

 the best of the French wines. The Rhenish, or Hock, is the best of 

 the German wines. Malmsey is made from Muscadine raisins. The 

 varieties and peculiarities of wine are, however, too numerous to de- 

 scribe here. 



The method of making and fining wines is worthy of notice. Red 

 wines in the south of France are made by treading or by squeezing 

 grapes with the hands. The juice and husks having stood a time are 



