Analysis of Wines from Asia Minor. Palestine, Sfc. 255 



country, shows that he supposed them to be quite weak. I in- 

 cline to believe that their strength is not above the average in 

 those countries ; and yet by consulting the analyses of Brande, 

 Beck, Fontenelle, &c. we shall see that they rank among the 

 stronger wines. And indeed this is just what the chemist would 

 expect. For if those countries furnish the finest grapes, they 

 doubtless contain a large amount of the sugar and ferment requi- 

 site for the production of alcohol.* 



In the second place, we have every reason to believe that the 

 ancient wines of the countries under consideration possessed 

 essentially the same character as the modern wines made there. 



There has been no important change in the climate, and of 

 course the grapes now produced there, are the same essentially 

 as in ancient times. If the wines are different, then, it must be 

 the result of different modes of making them. And I am not 

 aware of any important difference in this respect, unless it be in 

 those cases (and whether there be any such cases I know not) in 

 which the wines are enforced by the addition of distilled liquor : 

 but such a case affects not my present argument, because I have 

 analyzed only those which are derived from the pure juice of the 

 grape. Much indeed has been said about the practice of the an- 

 cients of boiling down the juice of the grape more or less, before 

 allowing it to ferment. But the same practice exists now, nor is 

 there any reason to believe that it was ever general, but resorted 

 to only to furnish an agreeable variety. And it so happens, for- 

 tunately, that one of the specimens analyzed, viz. from Mount 

 Lebanon, is a wine thus prepared ; and it may stand as a repre- 

 sentative of that class of wines. It is, indeed, the weakest wine 

 of the number ; and we learn from this fact that this process does 

 affect the amount of alcohol. And yet this specimen contains 

 about eleven per cent, of pure alcohol, and twenty two per cent. 



* Since the above was written, I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Van 

 Lennep in this country, and he confirms all the statements made in the text re- 

 specting the strength of the wines. He is even of opinion that those from the 

 neighborhood of Smyrna are below the average strength of the wines of that re- 

 gion. Rev. Mr. Sherman, also, who obtained the specimens from the vicinity of 

 Hebron, and whom I have lately seen, thinks that they may be somewhat stronger 

 than the average of wines in that region. The specimens from Mount Lebanon 

 were procured by Rev. Leander Thomson, who is also in this country, but I have 

 not met with him. 



