154 



Professor Beck's Researches on Wines 



fermentation will proceed until the whole' of the sugar is con- 

 verted into alcohol. The result under such circumstances will 

 be a full-bodied, spiritous, sound, and, as it is technically 

 called, a dry wine. The addition of alcohol, during the fer- 

 mentation of the must, therefore, is to be conducted upon fixed 

 principles, and with a strict reference to the deficiencies in the 

 ingredients of the grape. An indiscriminate admixture of spirit, 

 either during the fermentation, or after that process has ceased, 

 would be attended with hazard to the flavour and value of the 

 wine. 



It follows, from these remarks, that alcohol is generated during 

 the process of fermentation, and that its amount depends upon the 

 proportion of saccharine matter in the grapes, and that when all 

 the ingredients are in due proportion, the most sound and spiritous 

 wines are obtained ; that, when this is the case, the wine may 

 be preserved for any length of time, without the addition of 

 spirit in any form ; and that, when this addition is made, it is 

 only for the purpose of supplying deficiencies in the must, or, in 

 other words, to bring the wine to that degree of strength which 

 it would naturally have attained if all the ingredients of the must 

 had been in such proportion as to effect a perfect attenuation. 



Wines of Palestine. — In the discussions which have recently 

 taken place concerning the chemical nature and effects of wines, 

 some opinions have been advanced concerning the wines of Pa- 

 lestine, which deserve a little consideration. It has been sup- 

 posed, that the wine spoken of in various parts of sacred history 

 was far less spiritous than that of modern times; and some 

 have even gone so far as to assert, that all modern wines are 

 brandied, and that to this circumstance is to be ascribed the 

 large proportion of alcohol which they are found to contain. 

 Upon consulting the original papers of Mr Brande, however, 

 it will be found, that that acute chemist was not ignorant of the 

 fact, that many wines are artificially brandied ; and as the very 

 object of his researches was to prove the existence of ready 

 formed alcohol in natural wines, he would, of course, be careful 

 to select those which were free from admixture. Indeed, he ex- 

 pressly states that he used this necessary precaution ; and, 

 moreover, Gay Lussac, though in the very country where many 

 of the wines analyzed by Mr Brande were produced, confirms 

 and quotes his results, without expressing the least doubt of 



