DR. L. GALL ON IMPROVEMENTS IN WINE-MAKING. 207 



dissolving such a combination (for instance, common salt, or cream 

 of tartar) in a fluid, and leaving it quietly in a warm place until 

 this has evaporated, it will be a salt remaining in small crystals. 

 The salts dissolved in must and wine are, however, very different, 

 according to the ingredients of the soil on which the grapes grew. 

 Besides cream of tartar, we know now yet sulphate of potassa, 

 soda, tartrate of potassa, of alumina, tartrate of iron, chlorate of 

 magnesia, and phosphate of magnesia. One and the same spe- 

 cies of grapes can therefore, according to its native soil, con- 

 tain, besides cream of tartar, also salts of different kinds, in a 

 greater or smaller proportion. This furnishes another proof that 

 no one of all forms a necessary ingredient of a good wine. A 

 strong content of salts depends always on a very salty soil or the 

 employed manure. A very detrimental influence upon the taste 

 of wines have the salts of grapes that grew on a soil rich in ni- 

 trate of potassa, nitrate of lime, magnesia, and ammoniacal salts. 

 The must of those ought always to be brought up to a sugar con- 

 tent of 28 to 30 per cent., in order to exclude a larger part of the 

 injurious salts by increasing the alcoholic contents of the wine. 



The main usefulness of some salts, as, for instance, cream of 

 tartar, common salt, the bitter salts, is their imparting to the wine 

 a softeningj opening quality. 



The Oummy {Slimy) Parts. 



Their presence in the wine retards only their clearing off, where- 

 fore it will always be prudent to remove them as much as possi- 

 ble before the fermentation by clearing off the slime from the 

 must, thereby removing, at the same time, many other stuffs not 

 destined by nature for the producing of wine, also the dirt and 

 dust that may have fallen into it. 



The same may be said of the ^'■gelatinic acicV Fortunately, it 

 is partly removed by the fermentation, partly settling itself in the 

 wine with the superfluous Tcali (potassa) and alkaline earths (lime), 

 with which it enters into indissoluble combinations. By the 

 cleaning process it is, for the most part, removed. 



T'hc Coloring Matter. 



Only one kind of grapes is known that has a red-colored juice 

 — the " Faerber grape." All others, whether red, blue, or black, 

 have the red coloring matter only in their skins. Its nature is 

 rosin, and therefore indissoluble in must as long as no fermenta- 

 tion of alcohol in it has taken place. For this reason, the red, 

 blue, or black grapes produce only white wine if the skins are 

 thrown out before the fermentation. If these, however, are al- 

 lowed to share the fermentation, the alcohol forming during it will 

 dissolve the coloring matter. This it does the more effectually, 

 and the wine gets the darker, the more sugar the must contained 

 (the more alcohol was formed). Besides this, the wine will turn 



