WINE. 



brifk wines, falling little fhort of Champagne. Ripe 

 goofeberries are capable of making fweet or dry wines ; but 

 thefe are commonly ill-flavoured, particularly if the hulk 

 has not been carefully excluded. Ripe currants, if pro- 

 perly managed, make much better wines than goofeberries. 

 Thefe fruits are much improved, according to Dr. Maccul- 

 loch, by boiling previoafly to fermentation. This, he 

 ftates, is particularly the cafe with the black currant, 

 which, when thus managed, is capable of making a wine 

 <lofely refembhng fome of the beft of the fweet Cape wines. 



The ilravrberry and rafpberry are capable of making 

 both dry and fweet wines of agreeable quality. As com- 

 monly managed, however, their peculiar flavour is diffipated 

 in the procefs ; hence, as Dr. Macculloch obferves, little is 

 gained by their ufe to compenfate for their comparatively 

 nigh price. A fimple infufion of thefe fruits, in any 

 flavourlefs currant wine during the period of infenfible fer- 

 mentation, will, with greater cheapnefs and certainty, 

 enfiire the produftion of their peculiar flavour. The 

 blackberry and mulben-y are capable of making coloured 

 wines, if managed with that view : they are deficient, how- 

 ever, in the aftringent principle ; neverthelefs, they may be 

 occafionally employed with advantage when a particular 

 objeft is to be gained. 



The floe and damfon are fo aflbciated in qualities, that 

 nearly the fame refults are obtained from both. Their 

 juice is acid and aftringent ; and hence they are qualified 

 only for making dry wines. By a due admixture of cur- 

 rants or elderberries with floes or damfons, wines not much 

 unlike the inferior kinds of port are often produced. The 

 elderberry is capable of making an excellent red wine. Its 

 cheapnefs alfo recommends it. It does not, indeed, poflefs 

 any great degree of flavour, but it poflefles no bad one, 

 which is a negative property often of great importance in 

 artificial wine-making. 



The quince, from its analogy to the apple and pear, is 

 better qualified for making a fpecies of cyder than wine. 

 The cherry produces a wine of no very peculiar charafter. 

 If ufed, care fliould be taken not to bruife too many of the 

 Jftones, otherwife a difagreeable bitter tafl;e will be im- 

 iparted to the wine. 



Grapes of Britifli growth are capable of making ex- 

 |cellent fparkling and other wines, by the addition of fugar. 

 iDr. Macculloch informs ns, that he has fucceeded in making 

 wines from immature grapes and fugar fo clofely refembling 

 Champagne, Grave, Khenifli, and Mofelle, that the beft 

 judges could not diftinguifti them from foreign wines. The 

 [grapes may be ufed in any ftate, however immature ; when 

 sven but half grown and perfeftly hard they fucceed com- 

 ipletely. 



1 The cottagers in Suflex, fays Dr. Macculloch, are in the 

 babit of making wine, almoft annually, from the produce 

 pf vines trained on the walls of their houfes. Many indi- 

 viduals through various parts of the fouthern counties, and 

 !ven as far north as Derbyftiire, pradtife the fame with fuc- 

 :efs. But the experiment is well known to have been made 

 tor many years on a large fcale, and with complete refults, 

 lit Pain's-hill, by the Hon. Charles Hamilton, in a fituation 

 ;vith refpeft to foil and expofure of which parallel in- 

 ilances are to be found throughout the country, and pro- 

 ,iuced from land of no value whatever for the ordinary pur- 

 I'ofes of agriculture. That our anceftors made wine from 

 'Ss produce of their vineyards there can be no doubt, and 

 Or. M. juftly remarks, that we can ftill make by far better 

 I'ine from our grapes, even as produced at prefent, than 

 rom any other fruit whatever. Thefe, therefore, are cogent 

 ,;afon8 for the cultivation of the vine, efpecially as, the £rae 



Vol. XXXVIII. 



gentleman obfefves, we might, with care, inure and domcfti- 

 cate to our climate many of the richer and more dehcate 

 varieties of fouthern latitudes. See Vine, and Varieties ; 

 under the laft of which articles fome intcrefting experiments 

 on this fubjeft are related. 



Raifins are extenfively ufed in this country for making 

 domeftic wines, and alfo for the fraudulent imitation and 

 adulteration of foreign wines, although not a native fruit ; 

 therefore they deferve to be mentioned here. When pro- 

 perly managed, they arc capable of making a pure and 

 flavourlefs vinous fluid, well adapted for receiving any 

 flavour which may be required, and thus of imitating many 

 wines of foreign growth. See the clofe of this article. 



The orange and lemon are likewife ufed for making do- 

 meftic wines. Upon the whole, however, they are not very 

 well adapted for the purpofe, as they contain too much acid, 

 and too little of the extraftive and of the fweet or fer- 

 mentative principle. 



From what has been faid of the manufafture of wine from 

 grapes, our readers will obferve, that different methods 

 are purfued, according to the kind of wine which it is in- 

 tended to make. Now thefe remarks are equally appli- 

 cable to artificial wines, in the manufafture of which it is 

 abfolutely ncceffary that the maker fliould determine before- 

 hand upon the kind of wine which it is his objeft to pro- 

 duce, and to modify his proceffes accordingly. We may, 

 with Dr. Macculloch, confidcr wines as of four general de- 

 fcriptions : fweet wines ; fparkling or ejfervefcing wines ; dry 

 and light wines, analogous to hock, grave, and Rhenifli, in 

 which the faccharine principle is entirely decompofed during 

 fermentation ; and laftly, dry and Jlrong wines, as Madeira 

 and flierry. 



Thofe of the firft and moft fimple clafs are t\\t fweet wines, 

 or thofe in which the fermentative procefs has been incom- 

 plete. It is to this clafs that by far the greater number of 

 our artificial wines bear the greateft refemblance ; a refem- 

 blance, fays Dr. M., fo general as to fliew that few makers of 

 this article poffefs fufficient knowledge of the art to enable 

 themfelves to fteer clear of what may be firmly called the 

 radical defeft of domeftic wines. Sweet wines may be made 

 from almoft any ripe fruits. Thofe moft generally em- 

 ployed, however, are the goofeberry and currant. We 

 fliall fuppofe that we wifli to make the quantity of ten 

 gallons of fweet wine from one or other of thefe fruits. 

 For this purpofe, the following are the proportions and other 

 circumftances to be attended to. Forty pounds of fruit 

 are to be introduced in a clean and fufficiently capacious 

 tub, in which it is to be bruifed in fuccefllve portions, by a 

 preffure fufficient to crufli the berries without breaking the 

 feeds, or if goofeberries be employed, without materially 

 compreffing the fliins. Four gallons of water are then to 

 be poured into the veffel, and the contents are to be care- 

 fully ftirred and fqueezed in the hand until the whole of the 

 juice and pulp are feparated from the folid matters. The 

 materials are then to be permitted to remain at reft for a 

 period of from fix to twenty-four hours, when they are to 

 be ftrained through a coarfe bag by as much force as can 

 be conveniently applied to them. One gallon of freih 

 water may afterwards be paffed through the marc, for the 

 purpofe of removing any foluble matter which may have re- 

 mained confined. From thirty to forty pounds of fugar, 

 according to the defired ftrength and fweetnefs of the wine, 

 and about fix ounces of cream of tartar, or, what is better, 

 crude tartar, are now to be difTolved in the juice thus pro- 

 cured, and the total bulk of the fluid made up with water, 

 to the amount of ten gallons and a half. 



The liqupr thus obtained is the artificial mufl, which is 

 3 U equivalent 



