WINE. 



ceeds languidly, it muft be accelerated by lieat and agitation. 

 If, when it is finifhed, the wine continues too fweet, it may 

 be bunged down till the fpring without racking or fining, 

 when the fermentation muft again be renewed. The re- 

 newal of the fermentation may alfo be effefted by adding 

 fome frefh juice of the fame fruit. At whatever time, and 

 under whatever of thefe procefTes, it has become dry, it is 

 to be carefully fined and racked into a fulphured caflc, and 

 bottled, after being once more carefully fined. 



The fourth and laft clafs of wines confifts of thofe which are 

 both dry in their quality, and ftrong in their nature ; fuch are, 

 Madeira, (herry, &c. ; the theory of thefe, from what has 

 been faid, will be fufficiently apparent. With due atten- 

 tion to the fermentative procefs, fuch wines may be made of 

 the requifite degree of ftrength without brandy. By means 

 of this, however, if managed as formerly direfted, the 

 operator has it always in his power to produce wines of any 

 required degree of ftrength. 



We need not here repeat the methods of imparting dif- 

 ferent flavours to domeftic wines, or of correfting their 

 faults, fince they differ in no refpeft from thofe recom- 

 mended to be adopted in the manufafture of wines from 

 grapes, to which therefore we refer. 



The following general remarks upon the fabrication of 

 domeftic wines, will not perhaps prove uninterefting to our 

 readers. 



The great radical defeft in the manufacture of domeftic 

 wines, is ufing too fmall a proportion of fruit compared 

 with the fugar employed. It is this circumftance chiefly 

 which renders the fermentative procefs incomplete, and 

 thus imparts that fweet and mawkifli tafte to our domeftic 

 wines, which renders them intolerable to many people, and 

 even to all, perhaps, without the addition of brandyi The 

 proportions of fruit and fugar given above may be confidered 

 as mean ftandards, which may be varied either way, accord- 

 ing to circumftances and the nature of the wine intended 

 to be produced. A very fuperior clafs of fruit wines may 

 be manufa£tured by ufing the juices of our different fruits, 

 either alone or very flightly diluted with water. 



We mentioned that fome fruits, and efpecially the black 

 currant, were much improved by boiling. For this pur- 

 pofe, it will be fufficient that the fruit be fimply brought 

 to the boiling point before ufing it, the water in the veffel 

 being fo managed as to avoid any rifli in burning. The 

 black currant thus treated, and fubfequently managed upon 

 the principles we have endeavoured to lay down, is capable 

 of making a wine very nearly refembling fome of the beft 

 fweet Cape wines. 



The fermentative procefs being rendered tardy and in- 

 complete, by the improper adjuftment of the fugar to the 

 fruit, is frequently endeavoured to be excited by yeajl : 

 nothing can be more injudicious than this. Teajl invariably 

 fpoils wines, by imparting to them a flavour that nothing 

 will ever overcome. The only ferment to be employed in 

 wine-making, is that furnifhed by nature ; and when this is 

 defedive, as is fometimes the cafe in our domeftic fruits, 

 the ferment of the grape muft be fupplied artificially. This 

 may be done by introducing a certain proportion of crude 

 tartar, the dofc of which may vary from one to fix per cent. 

 without materially afFefting the wine, as a great proportion 

 of what efcapes decompofition will be fubfequently de- 

 pofited. All fruits, except the grape, will require more or 

 lefs of tartar. 



The laft circumftance we fhall notice is the introduftion 

 of brandy, or other fpirit, into domeftic wines. As com- 

 monly manufaftured, they often require, as we have juft 

 ilated, this addition to render them tolerable. We truft, 



however, that from the attention that has been lately paid 

 to the fubjeft of artificial wines, the modes of manufafturing 

 them will be better underftood, and that this will no longer 

 be the cafe. Fine wines are invariably fpoUed by the addi- 

 tion of ardent fpirit, which feems to have the efFeft of 

 flowly decompofing them, and thus of deftroying that deli- 

 cate, lively, and briflc flavour, fo eminently pofTeffed by all 

 natural wines. Hence it is feldom or never ufed in wine 

 countries ; or rather It is confined to the manufadlure of 

 thofe wines deftined for this country, where only this bar- 

 barous practice is tolerated. We again repeat, that if the 

 fruit and fugar be duly adjufted to one anothir, and the 

 fermentative procefs be properly managed, an infinitely 

 better wine will be produced without the ufe of brandy, 

 than can ever be produced with it. 



General Chemical Properties and Compofition of Wines. — 

 The juice of the grape, as we formerly meiitii i.i-j, confifts 

 of a large proportion of water, of certain proportions of 

 the faccharine and fermentative principles, of .various acids, 

 efpecially the tartaric, and fome ill-defined extraftive prin- 

 ciples. Thefe were ftated during the fermentative procefs 

 to undergo difTerent remarkable changes, one of the moft 

 important of which is the converfion of the faccharine 

 principle into alcohol. The nature of the other changes 

 are not fo well underftood, nor does the little we know at 

 prefent of the compofition of wines throw any very fatif- 

 faftory light upon the fubjeft. One principle indeed, -viz. 

 the fermentative principle, does not exift in perfeft wines, and 

 therefore muft be decompofed or feparated during the pro- 

 cefs of fermentation. The principles formed In wines may 

 perhaps be arranged under the four following heads : 

 I. ylcids ; 2. Extradive and colouring matters; 3. EJfenticd 

 oils ; and 4. Alcohol. Water is not mentioned, becaufe it 

 forms the bafis of all potable fluids, and confequently of 

 wines. 



I. Acids. — All acids have the property of reddening 

 turnfolc or litmiiS papers, and therefore contain more or 

 lefs of a free acid. The acids found in wines are, the tar- 

 taric, the mahc, the citric, the carbonic, and occafionally 

 the acetic. 



The tartaric acid, in combination with pota^i, or tartar, as 

 it is ufually termed, exifts in great abundance in the juice 

 of grapes, as formerly ftated, and appears to be one of its 

 moft important ingredients. A large proportion of this 

 tartar is doubth.fs decompofed during the fermentative 

 procefTes, and a confiderable quantity of what remains is 

 fubfequently depofited in the cafks or veffels in which the 

 wine is kept, conftitutlng what is termed the crujl. It ap- 

 pears probable, however, that the whole is not feparated, and 

 confequently, as Dr. Thomfon juftly remarks, that wines are 

 never entirely deftitute of tartar. Satisfaftory experiments, 

 however, upon an extenfive fcale, are at prefent wanting upon 

 this part of the fubjeft. The malic acid, according to the ex- 

 periments of Chaptal, exifts in the greater number of wines, if 

 not in all, and that in much greater proportion than any other 

 acid. If this be really the cafe, it is probably, in part at 

 leaft, a produft of ftrmentatlon, for the juice of grapes ap- 

 pears to contain very little of this acid. Traces of the citric 

 acid were found by Chaptal to exift in fome wines. This 

 acid alfo exifts in thejuice of the grape, but in fmall quantity. 

 All wines that have the property of effervefcing, or fparkling, 

 when poured from the bottle into a glafs, contain carbonic 

 acid. Champagne, for example, owes its charafterlftic pro- 

 perties to this acid. Sparkling wines are ufually weak, and 

 contain lefs alcohol than ufual, for reafons that have been 

 already explained. The acetic acid is not an effential in- 

 gredient of wine, nor in faft ought it ever to exift in it. tf 

 3 U 2 the 



