418 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Nov. 21, 1884. 



less scrupulous than that of Birmingham, made use of the 

 aniline dyes for colouring spurious claret to such an extent 

 that the French Government interfered, atid a special test 

 paper named Q<]nokrine was invented by M]\I. Lainville 

 and Roy, and sold in Paris for the purpose of detecting 

 falsely-coloured wines. The mode of using the Qllnokrine 

 was as follows :— " A slip of the paper is steeped in pure 

 wine for about five seconds, briskly shaken, in order to 

 remove excess of liquid, and then placed on a sheet of 

 white paper to serve as a standard. A second slip of the 

 test-paper is then steeped in the suspected wine in the same 

 manner, and laid beside the former. It is asserted that 

 1-100,000 of magenta is sufficient to give the paper a violet 

 shade, whilst a larger quantity produces a carmine red." 

 With genuine red wine the colour produced is a greyish 

 blue, which becomes lead-coloured on drying. I copy the 

 above from the Quarterlif Journal of Science of April, 1877. 

 The editor adds that the inventors of this paper have dis- 

 covered a method of removing the magenta from wines 

 without injuring their quality, " a fact of some importance, 

 if it be true that several hundred thousand hectolitres of 

 wine sophisticated with magenta are in the hands of the 

 wine-merchants" (a liectolitre is=22 gallons). 



Another simple test that was recommended at the time 

 was to immerse a small wisp of raw silk in tlie suspected 

 wine, keeping it there at a boiling heat for a few minutes. 

 Aniline colours dye the silk permanently ; the natural 

 colour of the grape is easily washed out. I find on referring 

 to the Cliemical Neiis, the Journal of the Chemical Society, 

 the Comptes Bend2is, and other scientific periodicals of the 

 period of the phylloxera plague, such a multitude of 

 methods for testing false colouring materials that I give up 

 in despair my original intention of describing them in this 

 paper. It would demand far more space than the subject 

 deserves. I will, however, just name a few of the more 

 harmless colouring adulterants that are stated to have been 

 used, and for which special tests have been devised by 

 French and German chemists : — 



Beet-root, peach-wood, elderberries, mulberries, logwood, 

 privet-berries, litmus, ammoniacal cochineal, Fertiambucca- 

 wood, Phytolacca, burnt sugar, extract of rhatany, bilberries; 

 " jerupiga " or "geropiga," a "compound of elder juice, 

 brown sugar, grape juice, and crude Portuguese brandy " 

 (for choice tawny port) ; " tincture of saffron, turmeric, or 

 safflower " (for golden sherry) ; red poppies, mallow 

 flowers, itc. 



Those of my readers who have done anything in practical 

 chemistry are well acquainted with blue and red litmus, and 

 the general fact that such vegetable colours change from 

 blue to red when exposed to an acid, and return to blue 

 when the acid is overcome by an alkali. The colour- 

 ing matter of the grape is one of these. Mulder and 

 Maiiraen^ have given it the name of amoctjan or irine blue, 

 as its colour, when neutral, is blue ; the red colour of 

 genuine wines is due to the presence of tartaric and acetic 

 acid acting upon the wine blue. There are a few purple 

 wines, their colour being due to unusual absence of acid. 

 The original vintage which gave celebrity to port wine is 

 an example of this. 



The bouquet of wine is usually described as due to the 

 presence of ether, oenanthic ether, which is naturally 

 formed during the fermentation of grape juice, 

 and is itself a variable mixture of other ethers, such as 

 caprilic, caproic, &c. The oil of the seed of the grape con- 

 tributes to the bouquet. The fancy values of fancy wines 

 are largely due, or more properly speaking vere largely due, 

 to peculiarities of bouquet. These peculiar wines became 

 costly because their supply was limited, only a certain 

 vineyard, in some cases of very small area, producing the 



whole crop of the fancy article. The high price once esta- 

 blished, and the demand far exceeding the possibilities of 

 supply from the original source, other and resembling wines 

 are sold under the name of the celebrated locality with the 

 bouquet or a bouquet artificially introduced. It has thus 

 come about in the ordinary course of business that the 

 dearest wines of the choicest brands are those which are 

 the most likely to be sophisticated. The flavouring of 

 wine, the imparting of delicate bouquet, is a high art, and is 

 costly. It is only upon high-priced wines that such costly 

 operations can be practised. Simple ordinary grape-juice — 

 as I have already stated — is so cheap when and where its 

 quality is the highest, i.e., in good seasons and suitable 

 climates, that adulteration with anything but water renders 

 the adulterated product more costly than the genuine. 

 When there is a good vintage it does not pay even to add 

 sugar and water to the marc or residue, and press this a 

 second time. It is more profitable to use it for making 

 inferior brandy, or wine oil, huiJe de marc, or even for 

 fodder or manure. 



This, however, only applies where the demand is for 

 simple genuine wine, a demand almost unknown in England, 

 where connoisseurs abound who pass their glasses hori- 

 zontally under their noses, hold them up to the light to 

 look for beesAvings and absurd transparency, knowingly 

 examine the brand on the cork, and otherwise offer them- 

 selves as willing dupes to be pecuniarily immolated on the 

 great high altar of the holy shrine of costly humbug. 



Some years ago I was at Frankfort, on my way to the 

 Tyrol and Venice, and there saw, at a few paces before me, 

 'an unquestionable Englishman, with an ill-slung knapsack. 

 I spoke to him, earned his giatitude at once by showing 

 him how to dispense with that knapsack abomination, the 

 breast strap. We chummed, and put np at a genuine 

 German hostelry of my selection, the Gasthaus zum 

 Schwanen. Here we supped with a multitude of natives, 

 to the great amusement of my new friend, who had hitherto 

 halted at hotels devised for Englishmen. The handmaiden 

 served us with wine in tumblers, and we both pronounced 

 it excellent. My new friend was enthusiastic ; the bouquet 

 was superior to anything he had ever met with before, and 

 if it could only be fined — it wa.s not by any means bright — 

 it would be invaluable. He then took me into his confi- 

 dence. He was in the wine trade, assisting in his father's 

 business ; the " governor " had told him to look out in the 

 course of his travels, as there were obscure vineyards here 

 and there producing very choice wines that might be con- 

 tracted for at very low prices. This was one of them ; here 

 was good business. If I would help him to learn all about 

 it, presentation cases of wine should be poured upon me for 

 ever after. 



I accordingly asked the handmaiden, "Was fiir Wein ? " 

 iSrc. Her answer was, " Apfel Wein." She was frightened 

 at my burst of laughter, and the young wine-merchant also 

 imagined that he had made acquaintance with a lunatic, 

 until I translated the answer, and told him that we had been 

 drinking cider. We called for more, and recognised the 

 " curious " bouquet at once. 



The manufacture of bouquets has made great progress of 

 late, and they are much cheaper than formerly. Their chief 

 source is coal-tar, the refuse from gas-works. That most easily 

 produced is the essence of bitter almonds, which supplies 

 a "nutty" flavour and bouquet. Anybody may make 

 it by simply adding benzol (the most volatile portion of 

 the coal-tar), in small portions at a time, to warm, fuming 

 nitric acid. On cooling and diluting the mixture, a 

 yellow oil, which solidifies at a little above the freezing- 

 jioint of water, is formed. It may be purified by 

 washing first with water, and then with a weak solution 



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