3b6 



ON THE SUGAR OF GRAPES. 



Tartar added to 

 the juice of 

 sour grapes will 

 not make wine, 



OT increase the 

 jjjoduce of 

 spirit. 



Price of the 

 grape musco- 

 vado. 



in ip'mt. 



too must be the quality of the grapes, the juice of which 

 afforded him but four drachms of sugar to the pint? and 

 this sugar, how could he characterize it as of the same spe- 

 cies with that of the cane? Farther, on what grounds can 

 he talk of fermentation, and its produce in spirit, from tri- 

 als in which we find sugar employed in the proportion of 

 cue pound to fifty quarts of water? The liquorice water, 

 that children sell by the shelUfulI, is not poorer stuff. 



If it were true, that fermentation caused the tartar to 

 concur in the production of wine, and even that it could 

 consume fresh quantities for this purpose, as Bullion asserts, 

 we ought never to«raeet with it in our casks; and the juices 

 most abundant in tartar, those of the years in which the 

 grape does not ripen fully, would afford wines most abun- 

 dant in brandy. If we could believe, that doubling the 

 quantity of tartar would occasion the produce of spirit to 

 be half as much more, what better use could we make of 

 this salt, than adding it to the must in the proportion of 

 half a drachm to a quart, the dose that he asserts occasioned 

 his obtaining half as much more brandy? 



With regard to the price at which the muscovado of the 

 grape can be afforded, thirty pounds, under the most un- 

 favourable circumstances, and making full allowance for 

 everything, cost at Madrid 45 reals [20*. l|rf.]; but had 

 every thing been bought at the best hand, and the labora- 

 tory been a place fitted up for the purpose, the cost would 

 certainly not have exceeded 30 reals [_l3s. 5|d] : and in 

 what part of the kingdom of Spain is coarse sugar or even 

 honey to be bought for a real \_5d ^] a pound ? Add to this 

 the tuns of grapes annually wasted in the country. At 

 Toro, this year, I am told, that the beggars, after being 

 glutted with grapes that they could not consume, left above 

 170000 arrobes [about 2125 tuns], or about 50000 ar. 

 robes [625 tuns] of muscovado. And at Aranda de Duero 

 2000 cantars [500 galls.] of wine, that could neither be 

 sold nor consumed, were thrown into the kennels; and 

 150000 were left in the vineyards. 



A fact that should not be omitted is the solution of lime 

 in spirit, which I believe has not been observed. I distilled 

 twenty five pints of red wine of la Manqha, adding a.hand. 



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