WIN 



W I N 



Windsor Bean, in Agriculture and Gardening. See 

 Bean, and Vicia. 



WINDTBERG, in Geography, a town of the duchy of 

 Holftein ; 4 miles S.S.E. of Meldorp. 



WINDTHAAG, or Windthag, a town of Auftria ; 

 3 miles E, of Bavarian Waidhoven. 



WINDWARD Passage, a name given to a courfe 

 from the fouth-eaft angle of the ifland of Jamaica, in the 

 Weft Indies, and extending from 160 leagues to the north 

 fide of Crooked ifland, in the Bahamas. Ships have often 

 failed through this channel, from the north part of it to the 

 ifland of Cuba, or the gulf of Mexico, notwithftanding the 

 common opinion, on account of the current which is againil 

 it, that they keep the Bahama fliore on board, and that they 

 meet with the wind in fummer for the moll part of the 

 channel eafterly, which, with a counter current on fliore, 

 puflies them eafily through it. 



WiKDWARD IJlands, in oppofition to Leeward. Thefe 

 iflands in the Weft Indies extend from Martinico to Tobago. 

 See West Indies. 



Windward Point, a cape on the north-eaft coaft of the 

 ifland of St. Chriftopher. N. lat. 17° 23'. W. long. 62° 22'. 



WINDY Tumours. See Tumour. 



WINE, the fermented juice of the grape. The name is 

 alfo applied to the fermented juice of other fubacid fruits. 



It is impoflible to fix the era when mankind firft dif- 

 covered fermented liquors. Some hiftorians have afcribed 

 the difcovery to Noah, others to Saturn, others to Bacchus, 

 &c. In Ihort, almoft every country in which the vine is 

 indigenous has boafted of fome individual or native deity, 

 to whom the honour has been attributed ; and if we refleft 

 upon the firaplicity of the procefles eflentially neceflary to 

 be had recourfe to in making mne, it will appear exceed- 

 ingly probable that the difcovery was not made by one 

 perfon or country exclufively, but by different individuals 

 and nations at very different periods. A poet has elegantly 

 reprefented wine as a recompence given by the deity for the 

 miferies brought upon mankind by the general deluge : 



• Deus nobis fehcia vini 



Dona dedit, triftes hominum quo munere fovit, 

 Reliquias ; mundi folatus vite ruinam." 



Praedium Rufticum. 



Different kinds of 'wine were known at a very early 

 period ; and as civilization and luxury advanced, the number 

 was greatly extended. Hence the cultivation of the vine 

 became an objeft of importance, and many new varieties 

 were produced, which, favoured by foil and fituation, ren- 

 dered particular places more famous than others. Thus the 

 ancient Romans not only poffeffed a great variety of native 

 wines, but, in the days of their greateft fplendour, thofe 

 alfo of diftant and ftill more favoured climes, as the V'inum 

 Chium, Lejlium, Leucadium, Rhodium, &c. &c. See Pliny, 

 xiv. 6. 



Little is known refpefting the modes of manufacturing 

 fome of the moft celebrated of the ancient wines. The 

 general proceffes, however, did not perhaps differ much 

 from thofe at prefent in ufe. The fruit was collected, 

 bruifed by the feet, and fubjefted to prefTiire, as now prac- 

 tifed. The juice that firft flowed fpontaneoufly was called 

 xjdiToffov by the Greeks, and by the Romans vlnum prlmarlum ; 

 fuch as was obtained by prefliire was denominated "SivTi^itt, 

 or vlnum fecundarlum, and confidercd as inferior. 



Both Greeks and Romans appear to have frequently con- 

 centrated their wines, either by fpontaneous evaporation, or 

 by boiling. For the former purpofe, the wine was fome- 

 times introduced into bladders or large jars, and expofed in 



the chimney to the heat of the fire, or in the upper parts of 



the houfe to the heat of the fun. Sometimes the fruit was i 



converted into raifins by drying, and the wine prepared i 



from fuch fruit was denominated pajfum. At other times ; 



the mujl was reduced by boiling to one-half. This formed [ 



the -vlnum defrudum : occafionally even to one-third, when j 



it was termed Sapa. ( See Phny, xiv. 9.) By one or per- 1 



haps more of thefe methods, the wines were reduced to the I 



ftate of fyrup, or in fome inftances even to drynefs, and j 

 were capable of being preferved for a very long time. Thus 



Ariftotle ftates, that the Arcadian wines required to be i 

 diluted with water before they were drank, as indeed was 



the cafe with moft of the ancient wines ; and Pliny fpeaks ' 



of wines as thick as honey, which it was neceffary to dif- ; 



folve in warm water, and filter through linen, before they ■ 



were ufed. This was the cafe with the wine of Csecuba, ; 



according to Martial : ( 



" Turbida folicito tranfmittere Cascuba facco." j 



Pliny mentions Staphylus as the firft who mixed \yjne | 

 with water ; but Athena:us gives the credit of it to Am- j 

 phitryon, king of Athens. On this occafion a fable was . 

 invented, that Bacchus, having been ftruck by a thunder- i 

 bolt, and being all inflamed, was prefently caft into the 

 nymphs' bath, to be extinguifhed. 



Thefe remarks, however, are applied by the above au- ■ 

 thors chiefly to very old wines. Thus the wine compared 

 by Pliny to honey had been made two hundred years be- 

 fore, in the time of conful Opimius : indeed wines of a 

 hundred years old, and upwards, feem not to have been 

 uncommon among the luxurious citizens of ancient Rome. . 

 (See Hor. od. iii. 14. 18. Juvenal, v. 34.) And fimilar 

 allufions will be found in various other authors. Seven 

 years was the fliorteft period, according to Ariftotle and 

 Galen, for keeping a wine before it was fit for drinking. 



Among the Romans, the age of wines was, as it were, 

 the criterion of their goodnefs. Horace, in his odes, which ; 

 one may call Bacchic fangs, boafts of his drinking Falernian ■ 

 wine, born, as it were, with him, or which reckoned its 

 age from the fame confuls. 



The age of wine has been reckoned by leaves : thus they 

 fay, wine of two, four, or fix leaves, to fignify a. wine 

 that was two, four, or fix years old ; taking each new leaf ' 

 put forth by the vine, fince the wine was made, for a year. 

 The moderns keep no wine to fuch an age as that mentioned 

 by Pliny. Where they are kept the longeft, as in Italy ; 

 and Germany, there are fcarce any to be found of above ' 

 fifteen leaves. In France, the wines that keep heft, as 

 thofe of Dijon, Nantz, and Orleans, are reckoned fuper- 

 annuated at five or fix years old. 



Wine kept in a cool vault, and well fecured from the ex- 

 ternal air, will preferve its texture entire in all the conftituent 

 parts, and fufficiently ftrong for many years, as appears not 

 only from old wines, but other foreign fermented liquors, 

 particularly thofe of China, prepared from a decodlion of 

 rice, which being well clofed down in the veffel, and buried 

 deep under ground, will continue, for a long feries of years, 

 rich, generous, and good, as the hillories of that country 

 univerfally agree in affuring us. 



Sir Edward Barry, in his Obfervations, hiftorical, criti- 

 cal, and medical, on the AVines of the Ancients, fuggefts, 

 that our beft modern wines, cfpecially thofe of a delicate 

 texture and flavour, may be more effeftually preferved in 

 earthen veffels of a larger fize than our bottles, well glazed 

 externally and internally : that dry fand is preferable for 

 covering the bottles in the binns to faw-duft j and that a 



fraaU 



