QUALITY OF MATERIALS ALCOHOL. 431 



sugar and alcohol. Of the former, perhaps, the 

 moist or powdered sugar is to be preferred, but it 

 must be of the superior, not the common and coarse 

 kind, which imparts to the wine a too high and or- 

 dinary beer-like colour, with the flavour of molasses : 

 of the latter, pure French brandy is the only alcohol 

 adapted to the purpose. As to additional cost in 

 these articles, at most it is, comparatively with qua- 

 lity, trifling, and if we aim at superiority we must 

 not be deterred by its necessarily superior expense. 

 This refers materially to the choice of raisins, the 

 low priced and inferior qualities of which make a 

 vulgar kind of ill-flavoured wine. I have said that 

 raisin wine is made in greater quantity than any 

 other of our home-made kinds, which ought, however, 

 to be understood of the wines manufactured for the 

 honest commercial purpose of mixing ; for, in regard 

 to private families, it is probable, currant wine ex- 

 ceeds all the rest in point of quantity. A few part- 

 ing words on the subject of alcohol or spirit. An 

 eminent scientific writer, before quoted, insists that 

 the alcohol does not amalgamate or mix, but remains 

 in a constant state of separation from the wine. Now, 

 as far as my own tact as to flavour, and that of other 

 individuals whom I have consulted, this decision ap- 

 pears to be totally incorrect, not improbably one of 

 those reveries of science so named, in which few sci- 

 entific tracts are deficient. I have not been able to 

 detect this discrepancy of taste even in new Port 

 from the cask, which, no doubt, had been sufficiently 

 brandied previously to exportation. Again : the addi- 

 tional and assistant spirit is affirmed to be more per- 



