64 On Colonial Wines. 
that in hot climates you can never produce wine with the 
perfume (bouquet) peculiar to those of colder regions. 
Nature has fixed the impassable barrier. If you are to have 
the perfumed wines of France—Sauterne or fine Chablis for 
example—you must also have all the other conditions, espe- 
cially slow, long-continued fermentation at a low tempera- 
ture; and in this case there is no demand for any addition 
of extraneous spirit, for it would almost certainly destroy or 
vitiate the so-much-prized bouquet, &c. 
1. When the fermentation goes on, as it does in all the 
warmer districts of Australia, the intelligent maker will 
watch the change in specific gravity, and when towards the 
point which he considers low enough, he will throw in one 
or two per cent. of very strong brandy, say 30 to 40 over- 
proof, and when possible made from the same kind of grapes 
as his wine has been obtained from. In a few words I will 
attempt to make the reason plain. The addition of one, 
two, or three per cent. of strong spirit fixes and renders 
henceforth either wholly, or very nearly wholly, inoperative 
the albuminous matters, and prevents further rapid fer- 
mentation—-prevents therefore the formation of spirit; and 
just in proportion as it prevents the formation of spirit does 
it preserve the natural sugar. The addition, then, at the 
proper time of a little strong spirit, not only adds nothing 
to the amount which would have been produced if all the 
sugar had been split up, but in very many instances it pre- 
vents the wine from becoming spirituous in a high degree ! 
As, therefore, we cannot have here generally Johannisberg, 
and Sauterne, and Burgundy, in approximate perfection, we 
must turn our attention to perfecting wines of the Portu- 
guese, Spanish, and Italian character. And when we have 
reached to the achievement of Lisbon sweet and Lisbon dry, 
and Bucellas in whites, and to Colares and Ports in red, we 
may be very well satisfied, even if three per cent. of brandy 
were used to save a portion of the saccharine matter. Whilst 
on this topic I may add that boiling the must would do for 
it the same as the brandy, fix those matters which are 
necessary to carry on active fermentation. | : 
2. Brandy is sometimes, and I think needlessly, added to 
wine before itis sent on a voyage. Here I agree with the 
anti-brandy doctrine, for if the wine was properly made and 
matured there is no need of strong spirit being added. 
3. In Portugal every vineyard-keeper makes a quantity 
o what he calls “arréme,”’ and what the Spaniard calls 
“arrépe ’—fresh must—before any fermentation has taken 
