8b MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
CHEMISTRY IN THE WINE 
CELLAR. 
By Frederick Mnspratt, Esq., F.C.S,L, 
The following valuable paper was read 
at. the annual meeting of the Hunter River 
Vineyard Association, in the year 1856 : 
I take advantage of tbe opportunity to diffuse infor¬ 
mation not accessible to all, winch may prove useful to 
my fellow viffnerons. I am in perfect accord withjihy 
preceptor, Baron Liebig, when he asserts tliat mere em¬ 
piricism can never enable any one to excel in presell¬ 
ing an industrial product acceptable to the consumer, 
and profitable to the maker. Mv object shall .be to 
bring to our aid the truths and researches of science. 
I am much indebted to the works of Baron Yon Babo, 
who is known in Enrope as one of tbe most successful 
wine producers. Tile German wine maker lias difficul¬ 
ties to contend with, which need not he feared in this 
'country; and here the sudden changes of climate and 
intense heats cause evils which I will iiiveStigatb more' 
thoroughly. 
Cellar mahagetneiit requires much more Study than 
Is generally supposed. The isles of Greece, Italy, 
Spain, &c., possess quite as fine a climate as this, and 
in some respects more favorable to thb growth bf the 
wine, but when left to the manipulations of the ignorant 
iarw'cis of tin* interior, what do they produce ? The 
table wine of Madrid tastes of tar, that of Iluesca of 
ink, the wine of Lanarka is resinous, and several country 
wines are glutinous. 
All these evils may he remedied or avoided by pfo* 
er care, and a knowledge of the discoveries which 
ave been made in chemistry during the last few years, 
Causing the wines of Europe to be more generally 
palatable. 
The production and stability of all organic substances 
depend on the affinities of four elements—oxygen, hy¬ 
drogen, nitrogen, and carbon. Three of these, when 
uncombined with other substances, are gaseous, and 
invisible; the fourth, when pure, is a solid, but when 
‘combined with others assumes the form of a gas. 
This ready capability of changing their proportions 
and this volatility, facilitate the absorption and distri¬ 
bution which is perpetually taking place, and the elimi¬ 
nation in the form of gas, of whatever may not have 
been required in the formation of the plant. All life, 
whether vegetable or animal, depends on the constant 
transition of the substances of which it consists. If this 
is any way interrupted, eraraacausis sets in. 
Though' these elements form the principal basis of all 
existence, they must he supported by less volatile sub¬ 
stances, of which the proportion required for the con¬ 
tinuance of organic life is much smaller, yet most 
necessary. These arc silica* alumina, lime, magnesia, 
potash, soda, iron, manganese, sulphur, and phosphorus. 
These substances unite in every organic form, bnt 
they cannot of themselves blend so as to attain the object 
of the organism. It is the vital power of each organic 
being, which as it were acts as architect, in merging 
into form the necessary substances. It is on the vital 
power of each single element, that the form it shall as¬ 
sume depends, for entirely different substances may be 
produced by the same materials. 
The elements obey, more or less, the genera] chemical 
laws, but there are some undisturbed by the vital power 
in the organism, that are not so prominent, and to a cer¬ 
tain extent appear to he debarred from performing their 
higher functions; it is only in the growth that the action 
of such elements commences, and this is different in the 
various species, producing compounds containing the 
elements in different proportions. All contribute, how¬ 
ever, to the development and preservation of the perfect 
plant. 
With regard to their influence over the animal king¬ 
dom, the basis of the nourishing powers of plants depends 
on these elements. The more highly organized animals 
do not take their nourishment directly from the 
nous plants. They live on that which the plants have 
amalgamated by artificial aid from the earth and tho 
atmosphere, and when we take animal food the source 
is still indirect. In the vine the wood, foliage, branches, 
blossoms, and fruit are formed from nearly the samo 
elements: the grapes, until they are parted from the 
stalk, partake of its life ; in this state there is no ad¬ 
mixture. After separation their naturo changes; 
sacchai-ine matter, glycocoll, tanin, &c., become pro¬ 
minent; the substances are now subject to atmospheric 
influence; the separation arid decomposition of elements 
commence of themselves, and form alcohol, yeast, &c., 
or pass into tlu» atmosphere as carbonic acid. This is 
the process of fermentation, where tho quantity of water 
present must regulate the kind of decomposition which 
will ensue. 
It would be ont of place iu communications which 
do not profess to enter into the minutim required in a 
hand-book< _to dilate on the fermenting process, or to de¬ 
tail the actions of the nitrogen which is contained in the 
yeasty or albumino-gl utinons substances, and the conse¬ 
quent formation of various atnmoniacal compounds. 
The products are alcohol; carbonic acid gas, part ot’ 
which remains iij the solution, arid imparts tho prickly 
taste to young .wines; lactic acid, formerly considered 
to be acetic acid, arid similar id composition to sugar; 
acetic acid, produced by tlia action of oxygen on alcohol 
at a high temperature; different odorous volatile sub¬ 
stances, partly ethereal, partly similar to volatile oils; 
veast, the .residue of the azotic substances which excited 
fermentation, hut nt)t to bo confounded with any excess 
of ferment there might be ; ammonia, formed from the 
azote of the ferment, uniting with the hydrogen which 
becomes free during the decomposition of the water— 
this unites with malic or other acids. 
Of non-azotic substances of tho grapes, contained in 
the cellular tissues, there are dextrine, starch, sugar, 
peotine, pectic acid; and extractive substances, which 
play an important pdii, as in then! are contained tlw 
elements of bouquet, colouring matter, and vegetable 
acids, the most important of which are tartaric, citric, 
malic, tannic, and gallic acids. 
Of azotic substances, them are glycocoll, albumino- 
glutinous substances, &c: 
Of inorganic substances, thero occur hydrochloric, 
phosphoric, and sulphuric acids, alumhia combined with 
tartaric acid, potash, magnesia, iron, arid traces of pe¬ 
roxide of manganese. 
The proportion in which these different ingredients 
stand towards each other is highly varied, ahd depends 
principally on the nature of the season in which tha 
grapes have matured. 
I have found this ydrir that the sugar in the must 
ranged from 22 to 28 per cent. This wide range is ow¬ 
ing to my having had grapes from four vineyards, oa 
perfectly different soils : t need not describe them mom 
fully, as they have been thoroughly amplified in pre¬ 
vious accounts of the proceedings bf this society. The 
highest number refers to the grapes from the Irrawan; 
vineyard, the lowest to those from the vineyard on the 
"Williams river, that were planted by Mr. King. I also 
hail some grapes from the Tureela vineyard, which 
muBted equal to the highest, but its mean was 28 per 
cent, glucose or grape sugar. The deduction, by calcu¬ 
lating the specific gravities, is, that the wine produced 
will range from 14 to 21 per cent. alcohol. ^ 
The mucous, &c., amounts, riccording to Yalz’s inves¬ 
tigations in Europe, to three per cent; but, owing to 
the difficulty in getting suitable simple apparatus here, 
to discover the mean content, I have not been able to 
arrive at accurate conclusions; but I would imagine the 
average to be higher here, as the mineral and vegetable 
salts, which average three per cent, in Germany, indi¬ 
cate in this country five per cent, and upwards; the rest 
is water. 
It is only some two months after the vintage, when 
