Wine 



red wines derive their colour is contained 

 exclusively in the skins. Moreover, it is not 

 soluble in water, but is easily dissolved in 

 alcohol. So it is only when the fermentation 

 has made considerable progress that the 

 liquid is coloured by the action of the alcohol 

 in dissolving the colouring matter. If the 

 skins are removed before the juice ferments 

 and contains alcohol, the wine will remain 

 white, since there will be no colouring matter 

 to be dissolved. 



There are some wines that drive out the 

 cork from their bottles and that are covered 

 with froth when poured into a glass. These 

 are sparkling wines. To achieve this result 

 the wine must be bottled before the fermenta- 

 tion is complete. The carbonic acid gas, 

 which is still being produced and which can 

 find no outlet because of the strong cork that 

 stops its path, is dissolved in the liquid and 

 accumulates there, while making a constant 

 effort to escape. It is that which drives out 

 the cork with an explosion as soon as the 

 string that kept it in its place is cut ; it is 

 that which draws out the liquid in a frothy 

 stream when the bottle is uncorked and covers 

 the wine when poured into the glass with a 

 coating of froth from which a slight crackling 



225 p 



