OF THE VINE. 35 



by age. If the wine has been fined or separated 

 too much from the lees during the first racking off, 

 it will be thin and wanting in body, and deficient 

 in aroma. This can only be remedied by adding 

 substances to it that will strengthen it, whether 

 sugar or spirit, but either will injure the quality, 

 and the produce will not be of the fine flavor or 

 mellowness that is indispensable to good wine. 

 The strength of wine depends upon the amount of 

 sugar contained in the juice; a portion of this 

 sugar is decomposed, and its alcohol combined 

 with another portion during the fermenting process; 

 now if the fermentation is hurried too rapidly, and 

 is not suspended at the proper time, the spirit will 

 then by another fermentation (the acetous) be con- 

 verted into ivinegar^ and no manufacturing or 

 doctoring will ever correct the wine after that change 

 has occurred. The acid may be neutralized, but it 

 w^ill never be sound; for this reason a too rapid 

 fermentation should be guarded against Very 

 weak wines are more liable to become acid than 

 strong ones; because the amount of alcohol elabo- 

 rated when there is an abwndance of sngar^ serves 

 to check ihe rapid vinous fermentation, and prevent 

 it from running into the acetous. I think the juice 

 of well matured Catawba or Cape grapes, is strong 

 enough to insure good wine without the addition 

 of spirit or sugar," 



Mr. Spooner of Long Island, says, that to each 

 gallon of juice from the Isabella, he added from 

 one to three pounds of sugar. He thinks it best to 



