On Wine * 
4SS 
these liquors frequently contain a deleterious acetite of lead. 
Which the gallic acid throws down ; and this may also be the case 
Where leaden worms are used in the distillation of brandy, par® 
ticularly Spanish brandy ; but for wine, most certainly old casks 
if sound, are greatly preferable. 
Where do you keep your casks ? The cellar is good, for wines 
that are not required to be full and luscious. Almost all the 
French and German wines, will sour in a warm temperature. A 
cellar uniformly about 50 ° of Fahrenheit is the best situation for 
them. Port wine requires a temperature of about 60 degrees,. 
In England the best wine merchants keep a stove in their cellarSc 
But Burgundy, Claret, Champagne, Vin de Grave, Vin de Chablaisj 
Rhenish or Moselle, would be apt to turn sour in a warm place, 
especially if the warmth was not steady. Hermitage, Burgundy, 
Claret, Port, Florence, Sicily wines, lose colour, and flavour too, in 
casks, if they be exposed to alternations of heat and cold. Thin® 
bodied wines cannot bear it. There is not saccharine matter and 
mucilage enough to retain the strength and flavour : the body of 
the wine itself evaporates. 
Madeira, Sherry, White Port, Lisbon, Malaga are improved by 
warmth : they bear also exposure to alternations of weather ; by 
gradual evaporation they become stronger, richer, mellower ; and 
a garret is better for them than a cellar. 
In nine years, a pipe of Port wine kept in a cellar averaging 
from 42 to 50 ° of Fahrenheit, had lost the Port wine flavour, was 
of the colour of Madeira, and had diminished by evaporation ex- 
actly nine gallons : but was not in any degree sour. Madeira 
in a garret, I fancy would lose in rather a greater proportion ; but 
less than Lisbon. For the richness and fullness of the wine, 
impedes but does not prevent evaporation. Casks so exposed 
to the warmth of summer weather, should be frequently exam- 
ined. A good substitute for the common cock is a desideratum. 
The brass cock, is apt to collect verdigrease : the cedar spigot and 
faucet, must be long boiled, and soaked in brandy before it can 
be trusted : the spigot and faucet bushed with white metal, is bad ; 
the metal is acted on by the acid of the wine : the quill is too 
slow. The persons who grind glass stoppers for experiments on 
air, could easily make a glass cock, or spigot and faucet. The 
iron hoops of a wine cask should he painted. 
The best fining for wine of any kind i-s half a pint of skim- 
