On the Cultivation of the Vine , 
sugar being diluted in too considerable a quantity of wa 
ter ; or because sugar, by the nature of the climate, cannot 
sufficiently develope itself. In all cases there are two ways 
of correcting the vice which exists in the nature of the 
grapes ; the first consists in conveying into the must that 
principle which it wants : a proper addition of sugar pre- 
sents to fermentation the materials necessary for the forma- 
tion of alcohol, and the deficiency of nature is supplied by 
art. The antients, it appears, were acquainted with this 
process, since they mixed honey with the must which they 
caused to ferment. At present, direct experiments have 
been made on this subject ; but I shall confine myself to 
transcribe here the results of those made by Macquer. 
u In the month of October 1 776 1 procured from a garden 
at Paris a quantity of the white grapes called pineau and 
metier sufficient to make from twenty-five to thirty quarts 
of wine. They were waste grapes, and taken, purposely, 
in a bad state of maturity, that there might be no hopes of 
making potable wine from them : in nearly about a half 
of them, single grapes and even whole clusters were so 
green that their acidity was insupportable. Without taking 
any other precaution than to separate what were putrid, 1 
caused the rest to be bruised with the stalks, and the juice 
to be expressed with the hand : the must which issued 
from them was exceedingly turbid, of a dirty-green colour, 
and of a sweetish sour taste, in which the acid predomina- 
ted so much that it caused those who tasted it to make 
wry faces. I dissolved in this must a sufficient quantity 
of brown sugar to give it the taste of pretty good sweet 
wine ; and without boiler, funnel, or furnace, I put it into 
a cask in an apartment at the bottom of the garden, where 
it was left to itself. Fermentation took place in it on the 
third day, and maintained itself for eight days in a very 
sensible manner, but still very moderate. After that time 
it ceased spontaneously. 
