254 GRATE CULTURE AND WINE-MAKING. 



isb color. The existence of these is apparently principally effect- 

 ed by the quality of the soil and the locality of the vineyard in 

 which the grapes grow ; and it is self-evident that the sugar can 

 not replace the qualities that are dependent on those other parts. 

 For instance, it will be possible to produce at Diirkheim, in me- 

 dium or inferior seasons, a wine much better in quality by an ad- 

 dition of sugar, and yet it will always be but a better Uurkheim 

 at Worms a beitei- Liehfrauenmilch^ in Weinheim a better Hubberger, 

 but never a Sieinberger^ a R'ddesheimer^ or any other different spe- 

 cies of wine. 



Fully conscious of the contradiction of many wine-producers, 

 yet I have the full belief that, twenty -five years hence, during in- 

 ferior seasons, this method of improving the must will be generally 

 adopted. 



Dr. EiTTER ( ^Vei7lIehre, Mayence, 1817) saj^s : The main want of 

 the German must, in medium and inferior seasons, lies in the de- 

 ficiency of sugar stuff, and an overcharge of free acids. A ridic- 

 ulous prejudice took this deficiency to be an essential quality of 

 the Ehenish wines, which, however, is contradicted by the but 

 seldom happening seasons in which the grapes attain their full 

 maturity. Connected with this overcharge of acids is generally 

 the want of sugar, for which reason the wine contains but little 

 spirit. 



It would therefore be a great advantage to introduce into Ger- 

 many a method to remedy both evils. This method (in France 

 in use even with greatly richer must) would be, boiling the must 

 in a kettle up to 70° Eeaumur, and then reducing its acids by a 

 mixture of chalk. Must very poor in sugar has to be improved 

 by the addition of sugar. 



An opinion expressed by a medical commission, installed by 

 order of the royal Prussian government at Coblentz in the year 

 1844, in a controversy about the practicability of " Chaptal's meth- 

 od," runs in the following words : The proper chemical analysis 

 was neither directed upon the contents of sugar nor that of spirit 

 (alcohol), inasmuch as neither one, when added before the ferment- 

 ation takes place, is discoverable by chemical means from that 

 sugar or alcohol which is contained in the grapes, and which de- 

 velops itself only by a fermentation. The cane-sugar added 

 changes, during the fermentation, into grape-sugar, and leaves no 

 difference w^hatever. The spirit of wine or alcohol is, however, 

 contained in every species of wine, and by its nature not distin- 

 guishable, whether formed by patural grape-sugar, or cane-sugar 

 changed into it. 



By this published opinion, the method of improving wines by 

 sugar or spirit addition was therefore ofl&cially acknowledged and 

 recommended. 



