Neen — 
vention of wine is enveloped in great obscurity, 
but must be referred to very remote times. The 
first portion of grape-juice which had been pressed 
out by accident or design, and allowed to remain 
a short time undisturbed, would be found to have 
assumed new and surprising properties; and re- 
peated trials would soon prove the value of the 
discovery. By degrees, the method would be 
learned of preserving for constant use the bev- 
erage so obtained; and various processes would 
gradually be resorted to for enhancing its grate- 
ful qualities. The knowledge of the art would 
rapidly spread; and its simplicity would recom- 
mend its universal adoption. The Egyptians 
gave the honour of the discovery to Osiris, the 
Latins to Saturn, and the Greeks to Bacchus; 
while various authors have assigned it to other 
persons, not certainly so celebrated as the fabu- 
lous individuals just named, but not the less 
likely to merit the honour, Yet all these per- 
sons, or any of them, were probably mere improy- 
ers or early manufacturers of the beverage; and 
the real inventor or discoverer was either Noah 
or some one of the antediluvians. ‘“ Noah,” says 
-the inspired record, “began to be an husband- 
man, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank 
of the wine.” From the manner of this passage, 
it is not unlikely that the art of wine-making 
had been known to the antediluvians; but, how- 
ever this may be, it is mentioned in many a page 
| of the sacred volume as quite commonly practised 
| after the flood. 
“Corn and wine” seem to have 
been equally abundant, and are mentioned in the 
Old Testament as rather the necessaries and com- 
forts than the luxuries of life. But though vine- 
yards were cultivated to so great a degree in 
Palestine, wine seems not to have been so com- 
mon in other countries. Indeed the quantity 
produced elsewhere was for a long time very 
small. Except in Egypt and Greece, wine was 
seldom allowed either to virgins, to matrons, or 
toyoung men. In Rome, most severe restrictions 
were laid on it for the first 200 years of that cele- 
brated: city. But about this period, that is 500 
years before the Christian era, it began to be 
manufactured in greater abundance; and when 
afterwards the Romans carried the cultivation 
of vineyards to the greatest extent to which they 
ever reached, their productiveness was incredi- 
ble, exceeding that of modern vineyards by about 
a half. The varieties of the vine, known to the 
ancients, were very numerous, amounting to about 
fifty ; and some of them are described with suffi- 
cient minuteness to enable us to appreciate the 
relation in which they stand to our modern vines, 
Wine, however; was generally designated, not by 
the species of vine from which it was produced, 
but generally from the place where it was manu- 
factured; thus we read of Vinum Falernum, Mas- 
sicum, Albanum, Chium, Rhodium, Maeonium. 
Sometimes it obtained its name from its colour 
or age, as Vinwm album, nigrum, rubrum, vetus, 
hornum, trimum. | 
WINE. 
729 
The Chemical Constitution of Wines.—The es- 
sential components of all wines—irrespective of 
the water which forms their basis and of the 
various substances which constitute their differ- 
ences and peculiarities—are one or more acids, 
a volatile oil or oily ether, extractive matter, co- 
louring matter, and alcohol. The acids vary 
widely in kind, number, and quantity, according 
to the various nature of the juices; the oil or 
ether contains the flavour or aroma or bouquet, 
and is exceedingly richer in the prime wines | 
than in the inferior; the extractive matter 
abounds far more in new wines than in old, and 
is mightily controlled in kind, quantity, and con- 
dition, by all the circumstances of the vintage ; 
and the alcohol is the most important of the in- 
gredients, and surmounts and modifies them all 
for dietetical and medicinal uses, and does not, 
as is often supposed, lie latent till formed by dis- 
tillation, but comes necessarily and fully out of 
the process of vinous fermentation, and therefore 
exists essentially in all wine, and distinguishes it 
from must or mere vegetable juice. Saccharine 
matter, gluten, and acid are indispensable in any 
juice in order to its forming wine; and the quan- 
tity of the first, the kind of the last, and the 
amount of mutual reaction between the first and 
the second, contribute more than all the other 
ingredients and circumstances to determine or 
form the wine’s character. When the saccharine 
matter is very abundant, a checked fermentation 
renders the wine sweet and luscious, and a brisk 
and exhausting fermentation renders it strong 
and spirituous; and when the saccharine matter 
exists in small quantity, especially if malic or 
citric acid rather than tartaric be predominant, 
the wine is thin and weak. When tartaric acid 
abounds in the must, the wine ought to be highly 
flavoured and long-keeping ; when carbonic acid 
is voluminously developed in the fermentation, 
the wine ought to be brisk and sparkling; and 
when the acids of the must largely survive the 
fermentation, so as to continue free or uncom- 
bined, the wine ought to be light and dry. 
The taste and smell which distinguish good 
grape wines from all other fermented liquids de- 
pend upon an ether of an oily nature,—the ether 
of a volatile and highly combustible acid,—called 
cenanthic ether. This is formed by deoxidation 
of the substances held in solution in the must; 
and contains the same proportions of carbon and 
hydrogen as sugar, but a far less proportion of 
oxygen. “The wines of warm climates,” re- 
marks Liebig, “possess no odour; wines grown 
in France have it ina marked degree; but in the 
wines from the Rhine the perfume is most in- 
tense. The kinds of grapes on the Rhine which 
ripen very late, and scarcely ever completely, 
such as the Riessling and Orleans, have the strong- 
est perfume or bouquet, and contain proportionally 
a larger quantity of tartaric acid. The wines 
from the earlier grapes, such as the Rulander, 
and others, contain a large proportion of alcohol, 
— 
