i6o Notes and Gleanings. 



in the second instance is just in the fact, that the first adds nothing but what 

 should be in the must in good seasons, and is in it, though not in the right pro- 

 portion ; whereas the other adds substances foreign to the grape, and injurious 

 to the human system. The first is pure wine, just as much so as if Nature 

 had given the right proportions : the other is a vile adulteration, rightly and 

 justly condemned. 



The author talks a great deal about a subject of which he has a slight dawn- 

 ing, but not much light, or he would know that the must of the same variety of 

 grapes will require a different treatment nearly every season ; that some seasons 

 it is furnished so nearly perfect by Natiire, that it would be folly to add to it by 

 art (in fact, it would show very little art if the wine-maker added to it) ; while 

 in other seasons it will not be as perfect, and will need, perhaps, one-third of 

 sugar and water to dilute the acids, and tone down its harshness : and the wine- 

 maker, in making these additions, makes it more wholesome and more palatable, 

 consequently of more value to the consumer. Although he cannot attain the 

 delicacy of bouquet of the best seasons, he can still make a good, wholesome 

 wine, which will be almost as good. If he makes poor wine at all, it simply 

 shows that he does not know his business. 



This anonymous writer also takes the bold ground, that he can detect whether 

 sugar and water has been added. If it has been added before fermentation, and 

 in the right proportions, and fermentation has been well watched ; in short, if 

 every thing has been done properly, — he cannot detect it; simply because fer- 

 mentation changes the sugar into alcohol. In 1865, I made Concord wine in 

 three different ways. Several casks were made of pure grape-juice : some were 

 .nade by adding fifty gallons of sugar and water to a hundred gallons of must ; 

 ■ind, again, other casks were made by fermenting sugar and water on the husks 

 after the bulk of the juice had been expressed. I have shown these samples to 

 hundreds, side by side, good judges of wine too, — perhaps better than the author 

 of that very sage article, — and told them that one was pure grape-juice, asking 

 them to select it. The result was, that some of them picked one sample, some 

 picked the second, and others the third. All agreed, however, that the whole was 

 good wine; and it has all been sold at the same price, although I told every one 

 who wished to know it how it had been made. , So much for the knowledge of 

 purity, as he understands the term. 



Again : many of our native grapes contain an excess of tannin, or astringoncy, 

 and also of flavor, which makes their wine, if left undiluted, unpleasant to the 

 taste and palate. By toning this down with an addition of water and sugar, we 

 make it palatable and wholesome. Is it, therefore, less pure .-' or is it not 

 really an improvement, devoutly to be wished by the wine drinking and consum- 

 ing public ? Perhaps it has never dawned upon the writer's mind that our grapes 

 differ very much, in this respect, from the European varieties ; and yet this is 

 the case. Even our native varieties differ so much in this respect, that he who 

 should treat their must alike would show thereby that he knew nothing of his 

 business, and is unfit* to make wine. Therefore my definition oi pure wine differs 

 from that of the gentleman in this, — that I consider ^{{nt pure as long as only 

 such ingredients have been ^^1^:^ before ferrmntation as are naturally in the 



