WINE. 



but the inconveniency of thie method is, that it gives the 

 wine a difagreeable tafte, or what is commonly called the 

 tafte of the rag, whence the wines, thus coloured, ufually 

 p»fs among judges, for prefled wines, which have all this 

 tafte from the canvas rags in which the lees are preiTed. 



The way of extrafting this tinfture, as here direfted, is 

 not attended with this inconvenience ; but it loads the wine 

 with water ; and if made into a fyrup, or mixed in brandy, 

 it would load the wine with things not wanted, fince the 

 colour alone is required. Hence the colouring of wmes has 

 always its inconveniences. In thofe countries which do not 

 afford the tinging grape, which affords a blood-red jujce, 

 wherewith the wines of France are often ftained, m defed 

 of this, the juice of elderberries ia ufed, and fometimes log- 

 wood is ufed at Oporto. 



The colour, afforded by the method here propofed, givea 

 wines the tinge of the Bourdeaux red, not the Port ; whence 

 tlie foreign coopers are often diftreffed for want of a proper 

 colouring for red wines in bad years. This might perhaps 

 be fupphed by an extrad made by boiling ftick-lack m 

 water. The fluns of tinged grapes might alfo be ufed, 

 and the matter of the turnfole procured in a folid form, 

 not imbibed in rags. Shaw's Leftures, p. 2 1 1 . 



Chip Wine, is that poured on chips of beech-wood, to 

 fine or foften it. 



Rape IVine, is that put in a cafk half-fuU of frefh grapes 

 picked for the purpofe, to recover the ttrength, bnllinefs, 

 &c. which it had loft by keeping, &c. 



Burnt Wine, is that boiled up with fugar, and fome- 

 times with a httle fpice. 



There is alfo a fort of Malmfey wine made by boiling 

 of mufcadine. 



Wines, Condenfing of, a phrafe ufed by Stahl, and fome 

 other writers, to exprefs what is more ufually called the 

 concentrating of them, that is, the freeing of them from 

 the fuperfluous humidity which they contain, and by thefe 

 means rendering them more rich and noble, freemg them 

 from their taftelefs part, reducing them to a fmaller bulk, 

 and thus making them fitter for tranfportation, and finally 

 rendering them more durable in their perfeft ftate, and much 

 lefs fubjeft to the various accidents that make them decay. 

 See Concentration. 



Various methods have been attempted for the effefting of 

 this, as by means of heat and evaporation, or by percolation, 

 &c. and great objeftions found in the way of aJl of them, 

 except the lateft, brought into ufe by Stahl, and fince re- 

 commended greatly to the world by Dr. Shaw in his Che- 

 mical Effays. 



If any kind of wine, but particularly fuch as has never 

 been adulterated, be, in a fufScient quantity, as that of a 

 gallon or more, expofed to a fufficicnt degree of cold in 

 frofty weather, or be put in any place where ice continues 

 all the year, as in our ice-houfes, and there fuffered to 

 freeze, the fuperfluous water that was originally contained 

 in the wine will be frozen into ice, and will leave the pro- 

 per and truly-effential part of the wine unfrozen, unlefs the 

 degree of cold fhould be very intenfe, or the wine but 

 weak and poor. This is the principle on which Stahl 

 founds his whole fyftem of condenfing wine by cold. 



When the froft is moderate, the experiment has no dif- 

 ficulty, becaufe not above a third or fourth part of the 

 fuperfluous water will be frozen in a whole night ; but if 

 the cold be very intenfe, the beft way is, at the end of a few 

 hours, when a tolerable quantity of ice is formed, to pour 

 out the remaining fluid hquor and fet it in another veffel to 

 freeze again by itfelf. 



If the veiTel, that thus by degrees receives the feveral 



10 



parcels of the condenfed wine, be fuffered to ftand in the 

 cold freezing place where the operation is performed, the 

 quantity lying thin in the pouring out, or otherwife, will 

 be very apt to freeze anew ; and if it be fet in a warm 

 place, fome of this aqueous part thaws again, and fo weakens 

 the reft. The condenfed vrine, therefore, fliould be emptied 

 in fome place of moderate degree as to cold or heat, where 

 neither the ice may diffolve, nor the rinous fubftance mixed 

 among it be congealed. But the beft expedient of all is to 

 perform the operation with a large quantity of wine, or 

 that of feveral gallons, where the utmoft exaftnefs, or the 

 danger of a trifling wafte, needs not be regarded. 



If the wine now once concentrated fliould, by a long 

 continuance in the freezing cold, be again congealed to the 

 utmoft (unlefs the cold were very fevere indeed), and then 

 again be drained from its ice, there, foon after this, falls to 

 the bottom of the veffel a pure white powder or tartar, and 

 even the icy part afterwards depofits alfo a little of the fame 

 fubftance after thawing ; and after ftanding two or three 

 days, there is always more and more of this tartar preci- 

 pitated, and that conftantly the more in proportion as the 

 wine was more auftere, or lefs adulterated with fugar, 

 brandy, or the like ; for thefe things contain no tartar. 



The ice of the fecond operation on a quantity of wine 

 differs in nothing from that of the firft, provided only that 

 the wine was poured clear off from it, before the ice is fet 

 to melt, by which means it diffolves into a clear phlegm. 

 This fliews the excellency of the operation ; as it lofes not 

 its efficacy upon repetition, but brings away mere water as 

 well at laft as at firft, without robbing the wine of any of 

 its genuine or truly valuable parts. The remaining un- 

 frozen liquor is a real concentrated wine, as appears by its 

 colour, confiftence, tafte, and fmell, and is aftually become 

 a nobler and richer wine than could have been procured 

 without fuch a contrivance. 



This operation, though it be perfeft in regard to wine, 

 yet does not fucceed fo well in regard to the malt-hquors. 

 The experiment has been fairly tried by Stahl on a gallon 

 of ftrong malt-drink, and the fuccefs was as follows : — The 

 ice feparated in the firft operation, when thawed by heat, 

 refolved into a liquor of the colour and tafte of fmall-beer ; 

 and the fecond concentration afforded an ice of much the 

 fame kind, which might have paffed for ordinary fmall-beer, 

 but for a flafhy watery tafte that manifeftly predominated 

 in it. The liquor unfrozen was but a pint and a half by 

 meafure, but it was extremely rich and thick, and feemed 

 very ftrong and fpirituous, and perfectly aromatic, or 

 highly flavoured. The confiftence was fomething like that 

 of a thin fyrup, and it had a pleafing foftnefs that fheathed 

 the acrimony of the fpirit, and covered the bitter tafte of 

 the hop. 



The mucilaginous nature, which is predominant in all 

 malt-liquors, occafions a great inaccuracy in this experiment, 

 as not fuffering the water to run clear, or be feparated from 

 the richer tincture of the malt, nor letting the condenfed 

 liquor be obtained clean from the ice ; but as the lofs occa- 

 fioned by this is not great, and the liquor is much cheaper 

 than wine, if this fliould ever come into ufe in the large way, 

 the thawed hquor of the ice might be ufed again in a new 

 brewing, and fo the lofs of that part of the ftrength which 

 was carried away by the freezing be recovered. 



Wines in general may by this method be reduced to any 

 degree of vinofity or perfeftion. Thus, for example, if a 

 wine of a moderate ftrength hath a third part of its water 

 taken away, in form of ice, by congelation, the remaining 

 pan will thereby be doubled in ftrength and goodnefs : for 

 if we allow, in the better forts of wine, that one-third part, 



wliich 



