320 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
four pails of wine are poured into the hogshead, the match 
is set on fire, and the wine stirred up ; every two hours 
the same process is repeated, until the hogshead is full. 
If new wine be thus sulphured it will not ferment; then 
it is called still wine (vin muet) — white grapes are used 
to make still wine. This wine has the taste of Must and 
a sulphurous smell ; the introduction of two or three 
bottles of this still wine in every hogshead of white wine 
is sufficient to impregnate it with sulphur. The color of 
wine is rendered somewhat muddy by sulphuring; but 
after a little while it resumes its color and becomes per- 
fectly clear. Sulphuring will prevent acetous degener- 
ation. 
OF THE USE AND PROPERTIES OF WINE. 
Wine is undoubtedly the liquor which has the most 
attraction for man : it strengthens, gives tone and nour- 
ishes. Under these views, wine is certainly wholesome; 
but when the use of wine is carried to an excess, it be- 
comes more injurious than wholesome. Without mention- 
ing those spontaneous combustions of the human body, 
which cannot be doubted, the immoderate use of wine 
destroys our physical and moral faculties and produces 
stupidity. The grape is a delicious fruit; its juice is 
wholesome, and a number of chronic diseases have been 
cured by the use of it. Nature, however, does not pro- 
duce wine ; for this reason it has not intended it as a drink 
for man; art offers it to him, only as a remedy to his suf- 
ferings, The excesses committed in drinkine: wine have 
at all times excited the disapprobation of legislators; the 
Athenians, Carthargenians and Romans had partly pro- 
hibited it ; the Mahometans forbid it altogether. 
In conclusion, let us reduce the whole matter to a few 
simple propositions, as the consequence of those facts and 
theories we have established Nature furnishes the ma- 
terials , but art alone makes wine ; the materials are water, 
tartar, the mucoso-saccharine matter and sugar; these form 
the constitutive principles of the Must; the agents of fermen- 
tation are air and heat ; the product of the whole is wine. 
Alcohol is the product of wine, (h) Nature has wisely 
regulated the proportions of the constitutive principles 
of must; in favorable years this proportion is stronger; 
when those proportions are exact, the only care to be had 
is to direct the fermentation — if nature has erred the mis- 
take is rectified by art — the liquor should be tasted, and 
the aerometer* placed in it. If the water be in excess it 
must be evaporated ; if the quantity of sugar be not in 
due proportion, more must be added ; if the tartar be de- 
ficient, the requisite quantum should be completed : if, as 
it is said, tartar will dissolve in Must, such is the secret of 
art, or rather the secret of nature, which chemistry, as its 
confident and often times its rival, has discovered and dis- 
closed, 
OF ASPHYXIA. 
EFFECTS OF THE CARBONIC GAS. 
The sensible fermentation of wine, in vats and casks, 
tihould be carried on in an open place above the surface of 
the ground: if fermented in a cellar, the carbonic acid gas 
evolved by fermentation being heavier than atmospheric 
air, would fill the cellar as high as the surface of the 
ground and be destructive of animal life, if taken into the 
lungs. 
OBSERVATIOXS(i) ON THE ABOVE INSTRUCTION. 
BY F. MANDEL, OF N.4NCY. 
This work being intended, on account of its great util- 
ity, to be placed in the hands of men of different moral 
faculties, should be very clear — it appears the author has 
^Tlie 'hydrometer is an ini-tiuinent n.sed to astertain the specific 
weig'ht of different fluids — this instrument is necessary to enable 
She vintner to judge of the quality of the must. 
not altogether attained this end — under the article pulling 
the grapes from the bunch he says : 
1. That the stem has a harsh and sour taste vrhich it 
communicates more or less. 
2. That, where wines are almost insipid, this natural 
insipidity is corrected by the slight harsh taste of the 
stem, 
3. That wine made with grapes separated from the 
bunch become easily slimy and ropy. 
4. That this separation yields a wine often flat and 
generally more difficult to keep. 
5. That fermentation is more active and regular when 
this separation has not taken place ; the stem then be- 
comes a useful leaven. 
6. That white grapes are never separated from the 
bunch, the stem rendering wine more spirituous, the grapes 
are never separated from it, when intended for distilla- 
tion. 
7. That the perfume and flavor of wine are preserved 
by pulling the grapes from the bunch. 
8. That grapes are palled from the bunch to obtain deli- 
cate wines ; when the grapes have not reached perfect 
maturity, and when the vine has been frozen, which of 
course hastens the moment of gathering. 
9. That when wines are naturally generous, the grapes 
are separated from the bunch. 
10. That it is essential to separate the grapes for those 
wines which have strength and body enough v/ithout the 
stem. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
The six first assertions tend to prove that in general the 
grapes should not be separated from the bunch, as it cor- 
rects the insipidity of certain wines ; that the wine pro- 
duced from grapes separated from the bunch is more dis- 
posed to become slimy and ropy, less spirituous and more 
difficult to preserve ; that the fermentation obtained until 
the grapes and stem has more force and regularity ; that 
the bunch is a useful leaven, rendering wine more spiritu- 
ous, and consequently producing a greater quantity of 
alcohol by distillation. 
The seventh and eighth demonstrate on the contrary 
that the grapes should be separated from the bunch: 
1. To preserve the flavor and taste of the wine, which 
the presence of the stem might alter. 
2. To obtain delicate wines, when the grapes have not 
acquired perfect maturity. 
The ninth and tenth show that in generous wines the 
grapes must be separated from the bunch, as also in those 
which have body enough to do without it. 
These different assertions naturally leave the manufac- 
turer in a state of uncertainly and doubt — how wdll he 
know when to separate the grapes from the bunch 1 and 
how will he be able to judge of the quality and body of 
his wine before it is made 1 
The author says that wine is the product of the fermen- 
tation of an aqueous liquid, keeping in dissolution, tartar, 
sugar and mucoso saccharine matter ; a generous wine is 
the result of the exact proportion, and complete saturation 
of these principles ; the superabundance of the one or of 
the other, and their aggregation, according as it is more or 
less intimate, yields wine of a quality more or less inferior 
and susceptible of becoming ropy or sour. From these 
remarks, it will be easy to judge when the grapes must 
be separated or not from the bunch. When the grapes are 
not in a complete state of maturity, owing to the want of 
the necessary heat, or because the vintage was made on 
account of frosts, or any other cause whatever, the grapes 
must be separated from the bunch ; because the saline 
matter being in excess to the mucoso-saccharine matter, 
they would yield an acidulous wine very apt to become 
sour; on the contrary, when the fruit is perfectly ripe, the 
grapes must not be separated from the bunch, because the 
