Wines are prepared by the dried fermentation of the sugar which exists in the juices of fruits. The wines of Europe are mostly made from the juice of the grape, which before fermentation is called "must." Wines vary according to the quantities of sugar, alcohol, and acid they contain. When wines contain much sugar they are called "sweet," when little "dry." The quantity of alcohol depends on the amount of sugar changed during fermentation. It is frequently added to wines to give them strength, as in port, sherry, and Madeira. Clarets, hocks, and the light wines of the Continent will not bear the addition of alcohol. The acid in wines made from grapes is tartaric. It forms an insoluble salt with potash, which is the tartar of the lees of wine, and thus wine is freed from too much acidity. The colour of red wines depends on a very small quantity of colouring matter contained in the grape. The market value of wines depends to a great extent on the development of a variety of chemical compounds, which are formed during their fermentation and keeping. These form the "bouquet" and peculiar flavour of wines. Some of these compounds, as cenanthic ether, occur in all wines.

Others, as acetic, butyric, caprylic ethers, and oxide of amyl, are only found in old wines; whilst some are peculiar to the wines of particular districts, as the flavouring principle of the muscatel grape.*

* South Kensington Museum Food Gallery.

Constituent Parts Of The Wines Ordinarily Drank In England

The vine is one of the most useful of vegetable productions. In Switzerland the leaves are used as a remedy for cuts and wounds. Our cooks use them for covering the breast of the grouse when roasting. They also make a good tea, which is said to strengthen the nerves. The prunings yield vinegar. The leaves are also good food for cows and sheep; but are too rare in England to be thus used, and in the vine countries they are used for manuring the vineyard itself. Vine branches yield potash and salt when burned. The Germans distil brandy from the skins or "musk," and extract an oil from the seeds.

For making wine the grapes are gathered when fully ripe. For the best wine the best grapes are selected; the stems are pressed with them, as they are thought to make the wine keep better. For red wine the grapes are picked off the clusters by the hand. Formerly, and still in one or two of the Greek islands, at St. Lucar, and in some parts of France the grapes are trodden as in the days of Isaiah; but now in a general way mechanical presses, or two wooden cylinders turning in opposite directions, press out the juice of the grape.

The juice is then put into vats and left to ferment. The saccharine principle of the grape and the tartaric acid cause the fermentation, which is rendered active by heat, and delayed by cold. In the dry wines there is a good proportion of tartaric acid; in the sweet wines the quantity is inferior to the grape-sugar; this difference causes the wine to be either "dry," as it is called, or "sweet".

When the wine is sufficiently fermented, it is drawn off into barrels. But as the process of wine making, interesting as it is, is of no service to the British householder, we will not enter into useless details, but proceed to enumerate the names and properties of the wines with which he should fill his cellars. And first we must premise that first-rate wine can never be obtained cheaply; and all assertions of such being the case are delusions and snares. The purchaser should buy of thoroughly respectable wine merchants, not of publicans or grocers; and the better the character of the firm is, the surer he may be of obtaining a pure and wholesome wine stands at the head of the above table, and has long been held in general esteem by Englishmen, but it is well known that there is no wine more easily imitated or adulterated; cheap port is therefore to be eschewed. According to Mr. Cyrus Redding (to whose admirable and amusing volume "On Wines " we recommend the reader), port or Oporto has long been so grievously brandied, coloured with elderberries, etc., in Portugal itself, that it never is (or only by accident) a pure wine. The taste for it was first introduced into England by a sense of economy.

Portugal undertook to import our woollens if her port wine was taken at a lower duty than the wines of France. The treaty respecting it, called the Methuen Treaty, was signed in 1703. At first the wine was supplied tolerably pure, but as it became an established favourite in England it was gradually more and more brandied and adulterated, and thus the English taste gradually acquired a relish for hot fruity wine, which it has not yet lost.

* From South Kensington Food Catalogue.

Mr. Henderson, a great authority on the subject of wines, says of port or Oporto, "The wines of Oporto, which abound in the astringent principle, and derive additional potency from the brandy added to them previously to exportation (especially those intended for the British market) may be serviceable in disorders of the alimentary canal, where gentle tonics are required. But the gallic acid renders them unfit for weak stomachs, and what astringent virtues they show will be found in greater proportion in the wines of Alicant and Rota, which contain more tannin and less acid. The excitement they produce is of a more sluggish nature than that attending the use of the purer French wines, and does not enliven the fancy in the same degree. As a frequent beverage they are unquestionably more pernicious".

For persons unable to purchase port wine at a good price from a first-rate wine merchant, Roussillon is an excellent substitute, and according to Mr. Redding has been frequently sold for port. It contains only 18.13 of alcohol, port 23.39, consequently it is not so heating or intoxicating, and it is considerably cheaper than good port. It is a wine of the Pyrenees Orientales.

"The red wines of Roussillon are remarkable for their fine deep colour and alcohol. They have the advantage also of not spoiling when left in a partially filled cask. They ameliorate by age. They deposit continually, and form a crust on the bottle." - Redding on Wines.