an agreeable spirituous liquor, produced by fermentation from those vegetable substances that contain saccharine matter. A very great number of vegetable substances may be made to afford wine, as grapes, currants, mulberries, elder, cherries, apples, pulse, beans, peas, turnips, radishes, and even grass itself. Hence, under the class of wines or various liquors, come not only wines, absolutely so called, but also ale, cider, &c.

Wine, however, is in a more particular manner appropriated to the liquor drawn from the fruit of the vine. The process of making wine is as follows: When the grapes are ripe, and the saccharine principle is developed, they are then pressed, and the juice which flows out is received in vessels of proper capacity, in which the fermentation appears, and proceeds in the following manner: At the end of several days, and frequently after a few hours, according to the wise heat of the atmosphere, the nature of the grapes, the quantity of the liquid, and the temperature of the place in which the operation is performed, a movement is produced in the liquor, which continually increases; the volume of the fluid increases; it becomes turbid and oily; carbonic acid is discharged, which fills all the unoccupied part of the vessel, and the temperature rises to the 72½ degree. At the end of several days these tumultuous motions subside, the mats falls, the liquor becomes clearer, and is found to be less saccharine, more odorant, and of a red colour, from the reaction of the ardent spirit upon the colouring matter of the pellicle of the grape.

The wine is usually taken out of the fermenting vessels at the period when all the phenomena of fermentation have subsided. When the mats is settled, the colour of the liquor is well developed, when it has become clear, and its heat has disappeared; it is put into casks, where, by a fecund infallible fermentation, the wine is clarified, its principles combine more perfectly together, and its taste and smell become more and more developed. If this fermentation be stopped or suffocated, the gaseous principles are retained, and the wine is brisker, and more of the nature of mulf.

It appears, from the interesting experiments of the Marquis de Bullion, that the vinous fermentation does not take place unless tartar be present.

The causes of an imperfect fermentation are the following: 1. If the heat be too little, the fermentation languishes, and the saccharine and oily matters are not sufficiently elaborated; and the wine is unctuous and sweet. 2. If the saccharine body be not sufficiently abundant, as happens in rainy seasons, the wine is weak, and the mucilage which predominates causes it to become sour by its decomposition. 3. If the juice be too watery, concentrated and boiling mulf is added. 4. If the saccharine principle be not sufficiently abundant, the defect may be remedied by the addition of sugar. Macquer has proved that excellent wine may be made of verjuice and sugar; and M. de Bullion has made wine at Bellejames with the verjuice of his vine rows and moist sugar.

There have been many disputes to determine whether grapes should be pressed with the stalks or without. This depends on the nature of the fruit. When they are highly charged with saccharine and mucilaginous matter, the stalk corrects the insipidity of the wine by its bitter principle; but when, on the contrary, the juice is not too sweet, the stalk renders it drier, and very rough.

The colouring principle of wine is of a resinous nature, and is contained in the pellicle of the grape; and the fluid matter of wine is nothing which can dissolve it: hence it is that white wine may be made of red grapes, when the juice of the grape is evaporated, and the husk thrown away. If wine be evaporated, the colouring principle remains in the residue, and may be extracted by spirit of wine. Old wines lose their colour, a pellicle being precipitated, which is either deposited on the sides of the bottles, or falls to the bottom. wine be exposed to the heat of the sun during the summer, the colouring matter is detached in a pellicle, which falls to the bottom; when the vessel is opened, the discolouring is more speedy, and it is effected in two or three days during the summer. The wine thus deprived of its colour is not perceptibly weakened.

The vinous fermentation has been examined with great accuracy by M. Lavoisier. According to him, the vegetable juice of which wine is to be made consists of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, combined with one another in different proportions, so as to form chiefly water and sugar. The fermentation produces a separation of the elements, and a new combination of them; a quantity of the oxygen and carbon combine and fly off in the state of carbonic acid; part of the carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, combine first with each other, and then all together, to form alcohol; another part forms acetic acid; the water still remains, and a residuum falls to the bottom composed of the three elements combined in other proportions.

The different kinds of wines produced in Europe and other parts of the world are many; the principal of them and their qualities are well known: a catalogue of them would serve no purpose here. We shall, however, subjoin a table of the quantities of the ingredients of the principal kinds from Neumann's Chemistry.

| A quart of | Highly rectified Spirit | Thick, oily, and viscous, resinous matter | Gummy and tartarous matter | Water | |------------|------------------------|------------------------------------------|---------------------------|-------| | Aland | 1 6 003 | 2 001 | 5 002 | 5 003 | | Alicant | 3 6 006 | 0 200 | 1 402 | 2 6 00 | | Burgundy | 2 2 000 | 4 000 | 1 402 | 9 00 | | Carcassonne| 2 6 000 | 4 100 | 1 202 | 8 4 30 | | Champagne | 5 2 000 | 6 400 | 1 002 | 8 3 00 | | French | 3 0 000 | 6 400 | 1 002 | 8 2 00 | | Frontignac | 3 0 003 | 4 000 | 5 202 | 4 6 30 | | Vin Grave | 2 0 000 | 6 000 | 2 002 | 9 00 | | Hermitage | 2 7 001 | 2 000 | 1 402 | 7 5 20 | | Madera | 3 0 003 | 2 002 | 0 002 | 4 3 00 | | Malmsey | 4 0 004 | 3 002 | 3 002 | 1 2 00 | | Vino de Monte | 2 6 000 | 3 000 | 2 402 | 8 0 20 | | Pulcinato | 2 2 000 | 4 200 | 1 302 | 9 0 10 | | Mofelle | 3 0 002 | 4 000 | 0 002 | 5 4 00 | | Mufcadine | 2 2 004 | 4 000 | 1 702 | 2 7 00 | | Neufchatel | 2 3 002 | 4 004 | 4 002 | 2 5 00 | | Palm Sec | 2 0 000 | 5 200 | 2 002 | 0 4 00 | | Pontac | 2 0 001 | 0 000 | 2 202 | 8 5 40 | | Old Rhinell| 2 0 000 | 0 000 | 2 202 | 8 5 40 | | Rhenish | 2 0 000 | 3 200 | 1 342 | 9 1 06 | | Salamanca | 3 0 003 | 4 002 | 0 002 | 3 4 00 | | Sherry | 3 0 006 | 0 002 | 2 002 | 6 0 00 | | Spanish | 1 2 002 | 4 009 | 4 001 | 10 6 00 | | Vino Tinto | 3 0 006 | 4 001 | 6 002 | 0 6 00 | | Tokay | 2 2 004 | 3 005 | 2 002 | 3 0 00 | | Tyrolred | 1 4 001 | 2 000 | 4 002 | 8 6 00 | | Red wine | 1 6 000 | 4 400 | 2 002 | 9 3 20 | | White | 2 0 000 | 7 000 | 3 002 | 7 0 00 |

The colour of wine is frequently artificial; a deep red is almost always the effect of artificial additions, as of the red-woods, elderberries, bilberries, &c. In France no secret is made of these practices, the colouring matters being publicly thrown out after they have been used.

It is well known to be a common practice among wine-coopers, innkeepers, and other dealers in wines, to adulterate bad wine in order to conceal its defects; if, for instance, the wine be four, they throw into it a quantity of sugar of lead, which entirely takes away the four taste. For similar purposes alum is often mixed with wine. Such wine substances, however, are well known to be extremely pernicious to the human constitution; it becomes of importance therefore to be able to detect them whenever they happen to be contained in wine. Several chemists who have turned their attention to this subject, have furnished us with tests for this purpose.

To discover lead dissolved in wine, boil together in a pint of water an ounce of quicklime and half an ounce of flour lead in a crucible; and when the liquor, which will be of a yellow colour, is cold, pour it into a bottle, and cork it up for use. A few drops of this liquor being dropped into a glass of wine or cider containing lead, will change the whole into a colour more or less brown, according to the quantity of lead which it contains. If the wine be wholly free from lead, it will be rendered turbid by the liquor, but the colour will be rather a dirty white than a black brown.

By this test, however, iron is also precipitated when dissolved in wine, and is apt to be taken for lead; a mistake which has ruined several honest merchants. The following test is therefore preferable, as not liable to the same inconvenience.

Take equal parts of calcined oyster-shells and crude fulphur in fine powder, and put them in a crucible, which method put into a fire, and raise the heat suddenly till it has been exposed to a white heat for 15 minutes. Then take it out, let it cool, beat the ingredients to powder, and put them into a well corked bottle. To prepare the test-liquor, put 20 grains of this powder, together with 120 grains of cream of tartar, and put them into a strong bottle, fill it up with water, boil it for an hour, and let it cool. Cork the bottle immediately, and shake it from time to time. After some hours repose, decant off the clear liquor into an ounce vial, having first put 22 drops of muriatic acid into each vial. Cork these vials accurately with a little wax mixed up with a little turpentine. One part of this liquor, mixed with three parts of suspected wine, will discover the presence of the smallest quantity of lead or copper, by a very sensible black precipitate, and of arsenic by an orange precipitate; but will have no effect on iron, if there be any: the presence of which, however, may be ascertained by adding a little potash, which will turn the liquor black if there be any iron. Pure wine remains limpid after the addition of this liquor.

As this subject is of importance, we shall add Mr. Fourcroy's observations on the state in which lead exists in wine, and on the methods of discovering its presence: "Of the different principles which compose wine, there was no doubt state (says he) but that acids were the only ones which were capable of dissolving oxyd (calc) of lead. But was it the tartarous acid always contained in larger or smaller quantity in wine, or the acetous acid developed in those which have become sharp, and which there is a greater temptation to sweeten? Experience had proved to me that the acidulous tartrite of potash, or the cream of tartar, takes oxyd of lead from the acetous acid, and a precipitate of tartrite of lead is formed; the pure tartarous acid prepared in Scheele's method produces the same effect. In order to understand how the sharp wine which contains these two acids can hold the oxyd of lead in solution, I made the experiments which gave me the following results: 1. The acidulous tartrite (cream tart.) has no sensible action upon the oxyds of lead; 2. The pure tartarous acid has a slight action upon the oxyds, and forms on their surface a little tartrite of lead (tartrified lead), in Wine which only contains the tartarous acidule, would not have any action upon the semi-vitrous oxyd of lead or litharge; 4. Sharp wine which we attempt to sweeten by this oxyd of lead, acts first upon it by the acetic acid it contains; 5. When this acetite of lead is formed, the tartarous acid precipitates it in the form of tartrite of lead: this is proved by the precipitation which the solution of the acetite of lead or sugar of lead forms in the wine; 6. But the acetic acid, if it be in large enough quantity, redissolves the tartrite of lead in the wine just as distilled water would. Bergman has pointed out this solution of tartrite of lead in acetic acid for distinguishing the tartaric salt from the sulphate of lead (vitriol of lead); 7. As this solution of tartrite of lead in the acetic acid is much quicker, and more easy in sharp wines than in distilled water and vinegar, it is probable that the cause of this difference depends upon the citric and malic acids which I have found in wine, and which I shall take notice of again on another occasion; 8. Litharged wine then, or wine sweetened with lead, contains tartrite dissolved in the acetic acid, and perhaps at the same time in the malic and citric acids.

"It was necessary afterwards to know the properties of this combination. What experience has taught me is as follows: I particularly examined the tartrite of lead and its solution in acetic acid. The tartrite of lead is scarcely at all soluble in water; it is in the form of powder, or of small white grains which have no sensible taste; when it is dissolved in vinegar, the vinegar is softened, its sharpness is diminished remarkably, and the solution takes a slight sweetness taste, much less strong than that of the pure acetite of lead. This taste proves that the union of the tartrite of lead with vinegar is not only a solution like that of salt in water, by which the properties of the salt are not changed, but a combination which gives occasion to new properties. It is a kind of a triple salt, different from those we have hitherto known, formed of two acids and of one base; whereas the other triple salts described hitherto are composed of one acid and two bases. I name this new triple salt aceto-tartrite of lead. The acetic acid adheres to it more than water in a common solution: what is remarkable in this combination is, that the two acids appear to adhere to the base with an equal force, although they have a different attraction for it: nothing is necessary to produce this equilibrium, but to unite first the oxyd of lead with the acid to which it adheres the most strongly, and afterwards to put this first compound in contact with the weaker acid.

"It was necessary, in order to discover easy and certain methods of ascertaining the presence of lead in wine, to examine with care the properties and phenomena of the decompositions of the aceto-tartrite of lead. Fixed alkalis and ammoniac (volatile alkali) precipitate from this salt an oxyd of lead, which is of a greyish white colour; but as they occasion a precipitate in pure wine, they cannot be of any use. The sulphuric (vitriolic) acid decomposes the aceto-tartrite of lead, and forms with it instantly sulphat of lead; which being very little soluble, and very heavy, is precipitated. The oxalic, or pure saccharine acid, and the acidulous oxalat, or the salt of ferret of the shops, likewise decompose this salt, and take from it the lead. The oxalat of lead is precipitated in great abundance: these two acids, the sulphuric and oxalic acids, not producing any precipitate in pure wine, are very proper to show the presence of lead in wine. The sulphat and oxalat of lead, when they are precipitated from wine, are coloured, whereas they are very white when they are formed in distilled water; but their red or brown colour does not prevent us from discovering them by a very simple method. If the precipitates be collected with care, and are cautiously heated upon a coal with a blow-pipe, they smoke, become white, exhale vapours, pass successively through the states of the red and yellow oxyds of lead, and at length are reduced into metallic globules at the instant they are perceived to be agitated by a very evident effervescence: if we cease to blow at this instant, we obtain globules upon the charcoal. In order to this, it is necessary, however, that the charcoal be folded, and be not cracked, and that we should not have blowed too strongly; otherwise the globules would be absorbed, and would disappear. The sulphat of lead requires a longer time to be reduced than the oxalat of the same metal, and there is a greater hazard of losing the metallic particles, which, beside, are in small quantity.

"To these two first processes, already sufficiently certain of themselves, I wished to be able to add one which might be capable of pointing out instantly the presence of lead, by an appearance belonging exclusively to this metal, and which might unite to this advantage that of manifesting very small quantities of it. Distilled water impregnated with sulphurated hydrogenous gas, or hepatic gas, extracted from solid alkaline sulphurites (flours of sulphur) by acids, presented me with these properties. This solution blackens very deeply that of the aceto-tartrite of lead, and renders visible this salt in water or in wine very sensible. The sensibility of this reactive is such, that we may dilute litharged wine with a sufficient quantity of water to take away almost entirely the colour of the wine, and this reactive will still produce a very manifest alteration. The sulphurated water has, besides, the advantage not to occasion any change in the wines which do not contain a metallic substance, and it is not precipitated by the acids of wine, like the solutions of alkaline sulphurites. In order to procure this reactive pure, it is necessary to prepare it at the instant of the experiment, by receiving in a vial full of distilled water, and inverted upon a shelf of a small hydro-pneumatic apparatus, filled with distilled water, the sulphurated hydrogenous gas, separated from the solid sulphurite of potash by the sulphuric or muriatic acid, and first filtered through water in another vial; when the second vial contains the third of its volume of the sulphurated hydrogenous gas, the gas is shaken strongly with the water, which fills the two-thirds of the vial; and when the absorption is over, the test liquor is prepared. This reactive changes very quickly in the air: it is necessary to make it the moment it is to be employed, and to keep it in a vessel quite full and well corked. If there were any fear that the black colour and the precipitation by the gaseous sulphurated water should not be sufficient to prove the presence of lead in spirituous liquors, I would observe, that this fear would be diminished by employing the three reactives mentioned in this memoir, and by depending only on the correspondent effects of these three reactives: but all suspicion would be removed, by reducing the three precipitates by the blow-pipe, and obtaining globules of lead from each of them."

Some years ago, the Academy of Lyons proposed the following prize-question, What is the best method of ascertaining the presence and the quantity of alum dissolved in wine, especially in very deep coloured red wine? The prize in wine, was gained by M. J. S. Beraud. From his experiments, it appears that a mixture of lime-water and wine in any proportion whatever, will at the end of 12 or 15 hours furnish a quantity of crystals, which may be separated by filtration, and that these crystals will be easily discovered when the quantities of wine and lime-water are equal; but that wine containing alum dissolved in it, will not form crystals when mixed with lime-water, but merely deposits a muddy sediment. To know therefore whether any wine contains alum Wine.

or not, we have only to mix a small quantity of it with lime-water: if crystals are formed, it contains no alum; if not, it does. Again, if wine contains alum, the residuum that remains after filtration will, as it dries, split into quadrilateral segments, which will detach themselves from the paper which contains them; but if the wine contains no alum, the residuum, after it is dry, will remain united and attached to the paper. If one measure of wine and two thirds of a measure of lime-water deposit crystals, we are certain that if the wine contains alum, the proportion of that alum to the wine will be less than \( \frac{1}{1152} \); if, when equal parts of wine and lime-water are mixed, no crystals be deposited, we may be sure that more than \( \frac{1}{365} \) part of the mass of wine consists of alum.

A great proportion of the wine consumed in this country is brought from Spain and Portugal; government has always discouraged the importation of French wines by heavy taxes. We are not sure how far such conduct is founded on good policy, as the French wines are confessedly the best, and might be the cheapest; but such is the jealousy and enmity that has always subsisted between Britain and France, that both nations have been contented to injure themselves provided they could do a greater injury to their neighbours. Besides, the advantages which Britain derives from the Portugal trade are very great, and it would not be easy perhaps to secure them on any other terms.

It may be worth while to insert here a few directions about the treatment of wines after they have been imported into this country.—On landing, the less they are exposed the better; for they are affected by the seasons, and more or less by climate. March and April are the proper times for shipping wines from France, and they will be landed in England and Ireland in the same degree of temperature. The great art in keeping wines is to prevent their fretting, which is done by keeping them in the same degree of heat. In spring and fall, the wines in Bordeaux are subject to changes that may be dangerous, if not prevented by necessary rackings: these changes are solely the effect of the seasons. If wines are chilled, and of course turn foul, from being shipped and landed in cold weather, they will soon recover by putting them in a warm vault, well covered with sawdust. As soon as they are in the vault, they ought to be covered up. But if shipped and landed in summer, if the smallest degree of fermentation be found on them, it will be requisite to dip the bungs clothes in brandy, and leave the bungs loose for some days, to give it time to cool; and if in a fortnight or three weeks the fermentation do not cease, and the wine become bright, it will be proper to rack it (matching the hogsheads well with brimstone), and force it with the whites of eight eggs. If it then becomes fine, bung it tight, and let it remain so until it is bottled. If wines new landed are wanted soon for the bottle, it will be necessary to force them immediately, and let them remain bunged close for at least a month, to recover from the forcing, or if two months the better; for wines bottled in high order come much sooner into drinking than if bottled when flat, which all wines are after forcing. Wine must never be bottled the least foul, which produces a tendency to fret; and if bottled in this state, will never come in order, but may possibly be lost: for this there is no remedy but repeated rackings; and care must be taken (after rinsing the hogsheads well and drawing them) to burn a good piece of match in them. This cools the wine, and there is no danger of hurting the colour, for it recovers it in a little time: but if it did, it is absolutely necessary; for if wine is suffered to continue on the fret, it will wear itself to nothing. Wines bottled in good order may be fit to drink in six months; but they are not in perfection before twelve: from that to two years they may continue so; but it would be improper to keep them longer, for wines in general have not the body they had formerly, from the vines being too much forced.

It sometimes happens that wines fecklessly and stubbornly will not fall with one or even two forcings. It will then be proper to give them five or six gallons of strong wine, and force them with the whites of a dozen eggs, with a tea-spoonful of sand produced from sawing-marble, or a small spoonful of fine salt. Bottled wine in winter should be well covered with sawdust, and if the vaults are cold and damp, strew it deep on the floor; if sawdust is thrown upon the hogsheads, and their sides are bedded some inches thick, it will keep them from the fret.

The same treatment is to be regarded with white wines, except that they require to be higher matched, particularly Mufcat wines; such as Frontignac, Beziers, &c., which being often sweetened with honey, are very subject to fret; and these only frequent rackings, with a great deal of brimstone, can cool. Hermitage, from not being sufficiently dried, and possessing more richness than claret, is also very liable to come on the fret, and will require much the same treatment as the Mufcat wines. Attention should be had to bottle in fine weather, when the wind is north; but to avoid cold or frosty weather. The months of April and October are favourable. The best time to bottle port wine is four years after the vintage, and to keep them two years in bottle before you begin to use them. When wines are racked, and the lees immediately passed thro' flannel bags into close-necked jars, and directly bottled, there will be very little lost by rackings, as the wine when fine may serve for filling up.

When wines are destined for warm climates, it may be proper to rinse the hogsheads with brandy; and in bottling many rinse the bottles and corks with it. Wines that have remained a certain time (three or four months) in a vault, and made lees or more lees, ought never to be sent into the country without first racking them, otherwise they may be liable to fret; and if bottled in that state, may risk being lost.

Wines which may be ordered for immediate drinking will be forced on the shipping, and in a few weeks after they are landed will be fit for the bottle. The forcings proper for claret are the whites of a dozen eggs, beat up with a tea-spoonful of fine salt, and well worked with a forcing rod. Take care to use no bad egg. This is for one hogshead.

The forcing for white wine is flinglas dissolved in wine. One ounce is sufficient for two hogsheads. No salt is to be used in forcing the white wines. See Croft on Wines, 8vo, 1788.

We shall insert here the following receipt for making raisin-wine.—To a 20 gallon vessel take 100 pounds of raisins; pick off the stalks, chop them grossly, and put them into an open tub more wide than deep. Add two parts in three of the water to them, and let them stand 15 days, stirring them well every day. Then strain and press them, putting aside the liquor that runs from them. Add the remainder of the water to the raisins that have thus been pressed, and let it stand upon them one week, frequently stirring them as before. Then press off the liquor, and add it to what you first collected; putting both runnings together into your vessel, together with one quart of brandy. To colour it, burn three-fourths of a pound of sugar into a small quantity of the liquor, and add this to the wine. When the liquor in the barrel has done flavouring, stop the vessel close, and let it stand till fit to be bottled. The greater the quantity which the vessel holds, and the longer it is kept in the wood, the better will it be.

Wine-Press, a machine contrived to squeeze the juice out of of grapes, and consisting of several pieces of timber, variously disposed, which compose three bodies of timber-work, closely united to the axis, which serves as a swing whereby it may be moved by the vice. Of these there are different sizes as well as different constructions; for an account of which, illustrated by figures, see Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, article Wine Press.

Spirit of Wine, or alcohol, a name given by chemists to every ardent spirit produced by distillation. See Chemistry Index.

Wing, that part of a bird, insect, &c., whereby it is enabled to fly. See Bird and Ornithology.