Dli. L. GALL ON IMPROVEMENTS IN WINE-MAKING. 253 



must of sour grapes. To do this effectually we have a very sim- 

 ple and cheap means — pulverized chalk. A too watery must re- 

 quires an addition of sugar, otherwise the wine will turn out 

 weak and not durable. Good care ought, however, to be taken 

 not to use too much sugar. The best plan is to take so much as 

 would be required to obtain the strength of a medium season. 



Dr. F. IIUBECK, Professor of Agricultural Sciences, says (in his 

 Essay on the Grape Culture in Lower Styria) : Wc have three ways 

 to improve the sugar-contents of grapes, viz. : 



1. By keeping them on layers to mature. 



2. By boiling the must. 



3. By a direct addition of sugar. 



We have three kinds of sugar : cane or beet sugar, grape or 

 potato sugar, and "slime sugar" {saccharum mucosum). Consider- 

 ing that, according to the results of the French, who have attain- 

 ed such a high degree of perfection in the art of wine-making, 

 the potato-sugar is the most adapted to this purpose, we have the 

 conviction that the potatoes are one of the chiefest means to im- 

 prove and procure an extended market for the wines of a country. 



J. C. Leuchs ( Yollstaendige Weinkunde^ 1847) says : For im- 

 proving the too watery must we have three excellent methods, 

 viz. : 



1. The boiling of the must. 



2. The addition of must boiled down to the consistency of mo- 

 lasses. 



3. The addition of sugar-sirup (which is, in effect, sugar and 

 water — for sugar-sirup is but sugar dissolved in water), starch or 

 grape sugar, cane-sugar, or honey. 



To must that, besides water, contains much acids, an addition 

 of these bodies (sugar or honey) is preferable to boiled must. Es- 

 pecially recommendable are the grape-sugar and cane-sugar. 



Improving the too acid and sour must : These parts may be es- 

 sentially reduced by increasing the siveet ones ; therefore by add- 

 ing boiled must or sugar. Unripe grapes may be allowed to fer- 

 ment with their skins and pedicles. Care must be taken not to 

 crush the seeds. The addition of sugar and water differs accord- 

 ing to the acid and asLringency of the grapes. 



Dr. C, E. Fresenius {Chemiefilr Landwirthe, Wiesbaden, 184:9) 

 says: Addition of sugar to Must. — The wine-producers increase the 

 specific gravity of their must, in seasons whose unfavorable tem- 

 perature did not allow a perfect formation of the sugar stuff in 

 the grapes, by an addition of sugar up to the standard of good 

 seasons, and obtain thereby a wine richer in spirit and more pal- 

 atable than from like must without this addition. 



Professor J. Von Liebig {Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie) 

 says : Young wines contain, among other parts, sugar that, by 

 keeping, gradually disappears, and some yet very little known 

 gum-like stuffs, that, in boiling the wine, very easily get a brown- 



