CELLABING. 107 



proved that if diluted alcohol were put into a bladder, 

 the water would really evaporate, and the spirit be 

 concentrated. Schubert,* on the contrary, asserts 

 that wood allows a readier passage to alcohol than to 

 water, and maintains as proof of this, that spirit of 

 wine loses strength when in a wooden cask. Even if 

 it be so, it does not follow that wine, which contains 

 less alcohol than water, should allow proportionately 

 equal quantities of each to evaporate, t 



Wine stored in wooden casks loses therefore in 

 water, whether mixed with alcohol or not. But if 

 evaporation affects the contents of the cask, the loss 

 must be repaired, otherwise the action of the air 

 would turn the wine sour, and convert the alcohol 

 into acetic acid. 



It is chiefly water which is evaporated, and its loss 

 is made up by adding wine. All the constituents of 

 wine, with the exception of water, are hereby in- 

 creased, and the wine becomes not only stronger, but 

 better flavoured. The vinous components being more 

 concentrated, are better able to act chemically upon 

 each other, and this alone would account for the 

 improvement of the wine. Here we have a general 

 statement of the causes upon which the difference 

 between new wine and that which has been stored in 

 casks mainly depends. But the change is carried 



* Pogg, Ann. Bd. 77, s. 409. 



f Consult Wackenrader's Archiv. Bd. 34, s. 16 ; Bd. 35, s. 29. 

 Liebig's Annal. Bd. 37, s. 128. 



