114 CELLARING. 



cream of tartar, and little free tartaric acid, and con- 

 stantly re-filled after evaporation, may become sweeter, 

 is beyond a doubt, for water is evaporated, the alcohol 

 increases, and as a necessary consequence, cream of 

 tartar must be precipitated. "Wines, therefore, which 

 are rich in alcohol, possess much less tartar (since this 

 salt is insoluble in alcohol), and on this account alone 

 must be less acid. It still remains a question, what 

 occurs in bottled wines which become less acid by 

 keeping, and the alcoholic contents of which cannot be 

 increased, since such sugar as is present in the wine 

 needs ferment to set it in fermentation ? And with 

 regard to the sweet taste of cellared wines, the sac- 

 charine contents are not diminished. It is well known 

 by Buchner's experiments,* that acetate, citrate, and 

 tartrate of potash in solution may be acted upon 

 either by ferment or by other substances, and con- 

 verted in a short time into carbonate of potash. The 

 decomposition in which Biichner perceived this trans- 

 formation was actual putrefaction, and cannot, there- 

 fore, be brought to bear upon what takes place in 

 wine. I thought it right, however, to mention it 

 here, since the same kind of results may as often be 

 obtained from a slow process as from one which runs 

 its course quickly, though under circumstances dif- 

 fering widely from each other. 



If the free tartaric acid contained in wine were 

 slowly converted into non-acid products, it would 



* Ann. der Ch. und Pharmacie, Bd. 78, s. 203. 



