WINE 667 avoid this result that the ancients resorted to various means of thickening their wines ; the modern practice of increasing the strength by adding starch sugar, and if need be yeast also, is preferable in every way, unless the increased percentage of alcohol be considered the more objectionable result. The quantity of alcohol in different wines, and in different vintages of those of the same kind, and also the modes by which it is to be ascertained, have received con- siderable attention from analytical chemists ; but since the specific gravity of wines depends not merely, as in brandy or dilute alcohol, on the proportions of alcohol and water, but also on the other solid matters contained in them, no means have been devised less tedious than the actual distillation of the spirit from a por- tion of the wine, and the determining after- ward of the proportion it must have formed in the whole. The analyses of the same wines by different chemists, naturally enough, afford considerable diversity of results ; and remem- bering that no analysis can determine what the percentage of alcohol is to be in a wine to which brandy or spirit is added in variable quantities, or in any quantity by the importer and vender, -the table furnished by Brando in 1811-'13 may still with little alteration be received as affording a fair indication of the average alcoholic strength of wines most com- monly known; a few of these are given in the following table : PERCENTAGE OF ALCOHOL IN WINES. Lissa 25-41 Tinto (red French) ... 12-32 Burgundy, maximum 12-32 " minimum. 11 '00 Graves (Bordeaux). . . 11-84 Champagne, white ... 1 1 84 red 10-64 Rhine wine, maximum 18-81 " " minimum 8'00 Tokay 10'46 Port, maximum 23-92 " minimum 19 ' 82 Madeira, average 20 "25 Constantia 18-29 Lachrymffl Christi 1S"24 Sherry, maximum 18'87 " minimum 17-00 Lisbon 17 '45 Hermitage, white 16' 14 Malaga 15 '98 Nice 13-50 Shiraz 14'40 Koussillon 15 96 Frontignan 11-80 Bordeaux (claret), max. 15' 11 " min. 11-95 Malmsey 15-20 Bucellas... .. 17-10 The analyses of Christison assign lower propor- tions than the above for. almost all wines, and especially the stronger, reckoning port, for ex- ample, at an average of about 16-2. Mulder, in summing up on the subject, says : " Port is the richest in alcohol, Madeira ranks next. Liqueur wines, as a rule, are stronger than red wines. Juran?on, Lachrymce Christi, Benicarlo, and Sauterne contain from 12 to 15 of alcohol, or more. Red French wines contain less, from 9 to 14 per cent. ; good Bordeaux, 9 to 11 ; cham- pagne, 10 to 11 ; and Rhine wine, 6 to 12, generally 9 to 10 per cent." The geographical range of the grape is very extensive. In the eastern hemisphere, excepting perhaps the cold- er eastern coast and central regions of Asia, it is from about lat. 54 K to 45 8. The eastern portion of the American continent being also colder than its western shores, the limit of suc- cessful vine culture in the former is probably about lat. 45 N. As an illustration of the effect of climate and situation, the muscat grape matures on the Rhine only so far as to be fit for the table ; while in the south of France it furnishes the rich Frontignan, Rivesaltes, and other sweet wines. So, the same variety of grape which on the Rhine yields the well known Hochheimer, near Lisbon affords the almost wholly different Bucellas, at the Cape the Cape hock, and formerly yielded at Madeira the deli- cious Sercial, neither of which latter bears any distinct resemblance to the true Rhenish. Mey- en declares that grapes of the same variety, if cultivated at different elevations upon the side of a mountain, yield essentially different wines. It is not latitude, but the course of the isother- mal lines, that so far as temperature is con- cerned determines the fitness of the grape for wine making ; but even within the same belt of equal temperatures, the predominance of cloudiness and humidity of the air is the con- dition, next to cold, the most unfavorable to the perfecting of the grape, as that of a generally clear sky and dry air is the most favorable. Thus, with the same latitude and a nearly simi- lar temperature, good wines are produced on the Rhine between Coblentz and Dusseldorf, though from the grapes of Belgium and the south of England they cannot be had. But the influence of judicious cultivation and manu- facture is doubtless among the most efficient of all. The celebrated Johannisberger wine is produced upon an elevation of 150 ft. above the Rhine and the country adjacent ; but the. Johannisberg estate and a few other estates near it belong to large proprietors, who bestow upon their business an amount of care and skill far exceeding that shown as a rule by the owners of the small surrounding vine- yards; the result is a very great superiority in the wines produced by the former. The soils on which the best grapes grow are rath- er light and porous, and of the composition called calcareous. But it must not be for- gotten that, as the grape contains consider- able tartrate of potash, this base must be pres- ent in a more or less soluble condition. "What are called feldspar soils, when of good physi- cal character, are favorable for grape culture. Certain peculiar strong-smelling substances in the soil are likely to impart their unpleasant odor to the wine it produces, an example of which occurs in some lands in Germany in which the Stinhtein (a variety of subcar- bonate of lime) is present. The vine growers of France and Portugal are strongly averse to manuring their vines ; and in the port dis- trict of the Alto Douro the practice is forbid- den by law. But the German cultivators ma- nure very freely, with no ill effect upon the quality of the wines, which in fact are gen- erally esteemed for their bouquet. The manu- ring is practised every third or fourth, or up to the tenth year ; fresh cow dnng is used in some instances, but oftener strips of wool- len previously soaked in liquid manure a; dried and the practice is more common with
Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/691
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