152 
rorULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Berg, and Hinterhauser, Geisenheimer, Rothenberg and Hoch- 
heimer, Dom-Dechanez. The above localities supply, nearly 
every year, wines of first-rate quality, and in good seasons 
furnish, beyond comparison, the finest white wine the world 
produces. 
Rhine wine is characterised by a moderate alcoholic strength, 
from 7 to 12%, a moderate amount of acidity, chiefly fixed 
acids, among which tartaric acid is probably never absent. 
It contains a high proportion of volatile ethers relative to 
its alcohol, and a very small proportion of ash. In this ash 
carbonates and chlorides are scarcely ever absent, and there is 
but little sulphate of potassium. Albuminoid substances and 
sugar are never present in quantity, having both been almost 
completely removed in the course of a very perfect fermentation. 
The wine is pure and therefore wholesome, has a very charac- 
teristic, and often an exquisite, bouquet, and is of extraordinary 
keeping quality, wines 200 years old and upwards being still 
extant and in good condition. 
Claret. — Claret is a red wine produced in the district of the 
Medoc and other parts of the Departement de la Gironde. The 
district of the Medoc, where the finest wines are grown, ex- 
tents a little northward of Bordeaux, along the left bank of the 
Gironde. It contains about 40,000 acres of vineyards and 
produces annually nearly 8,000,000 gallons. The lighter clarets 
are grown on the right bank of the river. The wines of the 
above districts include the finest growths of France, the most 
celebrated being Chateaux Margaux, Chateaux Lafitte, Chateaux 
Latour, and Chateaux Haut-Brion. 
Claret is also generally a thoroughly fermented wine of 
moderate alcoholic strength (8 to 13%) and acidity, the latter, 
however, being due in greater proportion than in Rhine wine to 
acetic acid. This is indeed the case, as before explained, in red 
wines generally. Among the fixed acids tartaric acid is rarely or 
never absent. It contains little or no sugar, a high propor- 
tion of volatile ethers, much colouring matter, tannin, and 
some albuminoid substance, this being, however, preserved 
from change by the tannin present. The wine leaves but 
little ash, and this of much the same composition as in Rhine 
wines. 
As a general beverage, more particularly when diluted with 
about half water, the lighter sorts of claret are perhaps the 
most wholesome of all the different wines imported ; while the 
finer growths, in regard to body, flavour, and bouquet, are un- 
questionably the finest examples of red natural wines. 
Hungarian Wines . — Hungary is one of the chief wine-pro- 
ducing countries of Europe, the \ine being cultivated almost 
throughout the whole country, and yielding annually nearly 
