(JHAPTER XV. 



OF THE D£G£.^ERJTIOJ\:S Aj\D ALTEILiTlOSS OF WhXE 



Though prepared with many cares, the best wiiies are subject to 

 altfiTations and changes. The duration of wines depends on the temper- 

 ature of the season, the stock, the grape, the mode of cultivation, the 

 wine-making and the cellar. The Marne-river wines last at most 

 from 6 to 12 years ; the Rhenish wines outlive a century ; the wines of 

 the South will count as mr^ny as 20 or 30 years. White wines seldom 

 can bear the cask more than two years, and the bottle four or five \ 

 the red are more lasting. 



The most frequent changes of the wine are from Roping, Acidity. 

 Bitterness, Turbidness, Pricking, Mustiness, Freezing, and Seairaen'-. 



1. Of Roping. 



Ropiiig is a milky alteration undergone by wines produced from 

 crops in a rainy season ; when the fermentation has been weak ; they 

 lose their natural fluidity and become as viscid as oil. White wines 

 are but slightly subject to this, unless very weak and meagre ; those 

 that have scarcely any spirit will rope even when well corked, but 

 recover and become limpid of themselves. This recovery generally 

 takes place about the first or second succeeding season. The whitish 

 sediment that was the first characteristic, becomes brown, dry and 

 deposited in scales, restoring its former transparence to the wine. It 

 is not, however, prudent, always to wait for this moment ; cream of tar- 

 tar should be resorted to, or, as the chymists term it, in wordy style, 

 sur-deuto-tartrate of potass is necessary to cure the roping. For a 

 barrel containing 75 gallons take two gallons of wine, whether ropy or 

 good wine the effect is the same, and heat this quantity to boiling 

 heat ; then throw into it from 6 to 12 ounces of very pure cream of 

 tartar, dissolved with its weight of sugar j pour the whole boiling hot into 

 the cask, wllich must be bilnged and luted air-tight, then shaken and 



