DR. L. GALL ON IMPROVEMENTS IN WINE-MAlilNU. 255 



V. 



THE TRINCIPAL CONTENTS OF THE GRAPE NECESSARY FOR THE 

 FABRICATION OF WINE. 



In the foregoing chapters we have cliiefly spoken of the sugar, 

 acids, and water as parts of the grape-juice, rroperly speaking, 

 these form the main ingredients from which the wine results, and 

 that produce a wine of as good quality as any given species of 

 grape is able to furnish from the particular site of the vineyard in 

 which it grew, provided those main constituent parts were con- 

 tained in a right proportion, or their relation to one another were 

 rectified in the must before the fermentation took place. But it 

 now becomes necessary to look closer into those principal agents 

 of wine-producing, as water, sugar, and acids, as also a few oth- 

 ers, that merit consideration solely because of their not belonging 

 to the wine, in order to manage properly those grapes that are 

 not fit for producing a wine of superior quality, or to know the 

 most profitable way of turning the residue of the grapes to the 

 best possible profit. 



The Water. 



The water which is contained in the must is essentially the same 

 as that falling from the clouds. It contains the grape-sugar and 

 the other parts of the must in solution, just as sugar-water con- 

 tains the sugar dissolved therein. By distilling a quantity of must 

 we get, however, perfectly pure water without any taste. 



We have soft and hard water according to its being impreg- 

 nated by minerals sucked up by running through them. Green 

 vegetables will not get soft when boiled in hard water ; and, to 

 reduce the must, none but soft water should be used. The hard 

 water may be charged with gypsum or lime, according to the 

 kind of rock through which it runs, and differs from soft water 

 by getting cloudy when a few drops of soap-spirit (soap dissolved 

 in alcohol) are poured into a tumblerful of it, while soft water re- 

 tains its clearness. To know whether it is charged with lime or 

 gypsum, it must be boiled and left to cool : if with gypsum, it re- 

 mains cloudy ; if with lime, it will turn clear again. By boiling 

 limy water, therefore, and leaving it to settle, it may, by this pro- 

 cess, be turned soft, drawing it off from the bottom residue. The 

 objections to using hard water to improve wines are the following; 



1. If it contains lime particles^ (a) the lime combines with a part 

 of the wine acid of the must, forming cream of tartar, settles down 

 as such, and is therefore lost for the formation of wine, and this 

 may retain less acid than desirable ; or, {b) bottles cleaned out 

 with water highly charged with lime parts, and filled in a yet wet 

 state with wine will instantly get covered by a thin coating of 



