Notes and Gleanings. i5i 



grape, though perhaps not in the right proportions. Whenever substances or 

 ingredients foreign to the grape are added, it is no longer ///;'<;, but an aduUera- 

 tion. 



Next we come to " Where are they ? " I answer, "In the hands of every 

 (Vine-maker, worthy of the name, throughout the country." I, for one, am ready to 

 Iiave samples of every cask I make subjected to the most critical chemical analy- 

 sis ; and if any thing is found therein which should not be in good wholesome 

 wine, any thing injuriou3 to health or foreign to good fermented grape-juice, 

 I give this author, or anybody else, full leave to brand me as an impostor or 

 adulterator. I have repeatedly offered this test to my opponents ; have requested 

 they would appoint a committee of chemists themselves, who should be at lib- 

 erty to choose their samples in my cellar : but they have never accepted my 

 offers. If they intend to be fair and manly, and consider the gallying process 

 as great an imposition as they pretend, it is their duty, a duty they owe to the 

 wine-growing interest of the country as well as to humanity at large, to demon- 

 strate that they are right. I am free to confess (and I wish every one who may 

 buy of me to understand it), that, if Nature furnishes me perfect must or grape- 

 juice, I will have it so ; if it is imperfect, I will try to remedy these imperfections 

 by adding what Nature should have supplied, and will s,\jiii^\y \xi good seasons, 

 but failed to supply in this particular instance. This prating about adulteration 

 will not convince as practical a people as the American. Let us have facts ; in- 

 vestigate, and make your investigations known ; or, if you will not do this much 

 for the good cause, you have no right to make accusations which you cannot prove. 



Next the writer goes into specifications of varieties, and says he has had 

 Delaware from Cincinnati, Missouri, and Illinois, none of them pure (as he un- 

 derstands that term) ; and only Messrs. Mottier and Harmes's productions were 

 pure for Delaware. He further says, that the Delaware has in itself all the 

 qualities to make a good wine, and has the character of fully ripening its fruit in 

 all sections. I beg to differ : first, I say he did not know whether he drank 

 pure Delaware wine (as he understands the term), unless the maker chose to 

 tell him how it was made ; and, secondly, 1 contend that the Delaware does not 

 always fully ripen its fruit. I have seen it drop its leaves so badly, that the 

 grapes could not mature fully. I may differ with him also in the application of 

 the term "ripe." I do not call a grape ripe when it is colored, but only when 

 it has come to maturity without disease, and has hung on the vines, after color- 

 ing, until it begins to shrivel. I doubt whether the Delaware will attain this 

 perfection everywhere. 



Next our writer treats of the Concord, and says, "In South Illinois and 

 Missouri, it can be grown to make a pleasant light claret wine, with, as we think, 

 however, too much acid, but, nevertheless, very good; and as such we have drunk 

 It." Now, if it contains too much acid, it certainly is not " very good," or even 

 ^ooJ. Here, however, it does not, in good seasons, and when fully ripe, contain 

 too much acid, but has an excess of aroma, which is certainly tempered down 

 and made more pleasant by adding water and sugar, although it makes a good 

 wine without the addition. 



