Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-04-01
Wine Manufacture and Adulteration.

Wine is the oldest of stimulating beverages ;
when pure, it is both healthy and nutritious
Even as far back as the time of the antodluvian
naturalists, Noah, its very valuable qualities
were tested The two principal wine-producing
countries in the world are Austria particularly
Hungary and France The whole quantity OF
wine produced yearly in all Europe is stated to
be 100 eimners, or 2,400 millions of gallons
Zone cimmer being equal to twenty gallons.) OF
this quantity Austria and France together pro-
duce 100 million eimmers and the rest of Eu-
rope 20 millions. In good years Austria pro-
duces more than France but generally France
produces moro than Austria. The consumption
of wine increases every year, but its production
lin a natural ,cay) does not keep pace with the
demand. 1t has been found by experience that
thirty-tllrec years in every century are years of
failure for the wne-dresser and only ten in
every hundred are years Of plenty. We may
therefore imagine to what extent adulteration
is carried. To illustrate this, we may mention
that in the last two years less port wine ha
been produced in Portugal by about 30 per cent
than was exported, and there was about so per
cent more port wine consumed in England than
was imported, making total of % per cent
spurious wine
The most lucrative and easiest of adultera-
lions is to convert water into wine, or to mix
water with wine. Port wine is manufactured
in England by adding wine to very strong Cape
wine, a new fermentation is caused by yeast
Coloring substances and etheric oils are added
! to immitate the flavor. The same method is
pursued to manufacture French and Spanish
vines rasins and currents are sometimes used
and even plums and bcet-root have been dis
covered in spurious wines.
As the sun shines on the wicked with as
much brightness us the good, 50 chemistry has
cnapled many to adulterate, at the same time
that it has taught how these authorizations may
be detected and, although, at present, we do
not understand the combinations of the alcohols
and others with essential oils, yet the time will
surely come when we shall, and even o.day the
experiments Of the laboratory have produced
from cream of tartar, sugar and fruits, SEEM
ngly good and wholesome wines. Some i'm
proyements must occasionally be made by the
wine-seller, because nature does not produce
every vear-even on the same soil-wine of the
same flavor and strength and the wlnc-dealer
therefore resorts to such means as will produce
wine of an equable flavor. There is in Swtzcr-
land and the sruth Of Germany IL mode of wine
improving which is called calling the wines. ,
There is no harm in this process, as it consists
in adding lime OF alumina to take OFT a little
sourness, and in applying the white of eggs or
isinglass or milk to purify it, as all these sub
stances precipitate but if lime or alkalies are
added when the Wine commences decomposing
it is hurtful to the health, as chemical combina-
tions are then formed in solutions which are
unhealthy. French wines are sometimes adul-
terated with alum or even sulphnric acid to i'm
prove the red color. The authorizations most
common are those for imparting color and fla
vor; the former is affected by Brazil and Cam
peachy wood, litmus, or citron, and the latter
by nitric acctic ether.
1t is fact that, even at the present time,
wines are manufactured without fresh grapes !;
raisins being stepped in rain or pure water, and
sediments of various kinds of wines-red or
Withholding added to cause fermentation
These are less Objectionable than the bad apples
and pears and the syrup of potatoes sometimes
used in making artificial wines.
Chemistry has hitherto failed to find reagents
to detect such authorizations, except cider which
is detected by the presence of acetic acid, The
only successful detective test in the hand of an
able chemist is the quantity of solid matter in
wines, as there is " constancy in the quantity
of solid matter in the various kinds of wines.
1t is only true of the natural unadulterated
wine that it is the milk for old age, a source
of health, and the nectar to which the Greeks
ascribe the power Of imparting eternal youth
and immortality to their gods,