WINE is not always found in the grocer's stock, but is a profitable branch of the trade where it is kept in its proper place. If sold only in bottles or by the quantity with no sampling or retailing it leads to a good class of customers who use, but do not abuse the product of the vine and who for that very reason prefer to purchase from the grocer instead of the tavern. Retailing liquor should not be mixed with retailing groceries although in some sections it is very generally done. In the end it limits the success of the store instead of aiding it. The best and most progressive custom is driven away and that which remains too often ends by owing both the bar and the store equal debts, the store having trusted a little more liberally on account of the bar, and the bar unable to refuse the credit asked lest the whole bill should be lost—as it frequently is.
The term Wine, is usually applied only to the fermented juice of the grape; when other fruits, as currants, raspberries, black berries, gooseberries, elderberries, etc., are used instead of grapes in making it, the product is generally distinguished as domestic or home-made wine. The quantity of alcohol is the first element which determines the price of wines, the proportion of which in the stronger wines has been analyzed by Brande as follows : Wine. Alcohol per cent. Wine. Alcohol per cent.
Tokay . 9-15 Bordeaux Claret 13-53 Champagne. 11-65 Sherry. 17-63 Burgundy 12-20 Madeira 20-31 Hock. 13-31 Port. 21-75 Wines, however, are not consumed for their alcohol alone; they contain other ingredients which they derive from the grape juice. which give them taste and flavor. Thus, when fermentation of the grape-juice is not complete, a certain quantity of sugar is left, and according to the quantity of sugar left, wines are said to be " sweet " or " dry." While hocks, clarets, and other light wines, contain little or no sugar, port, sherry, and champagne always contain a large amount. In the case of port and sherry this sugar is added during the manufacture, in order to enable them to bear exportation. There are three other qualities in wines which demand some consideration. The first is what is called the bouquet and the flavor. These terms are sometimes confounded but they are really different. The variety of flavor is common to all wines, but the bouquet is peculiar to certain wines. The substance which gives flavor to all wines is oenanthic ether and is formed during the fermentation of the grape-juice. The bouquet of wines is fern A in the same way by some of the acids found in the grape-,:uice after fermentation combining with the ethyl of the alcohol, and forming ethers. These are the things which make one wine more pleasant to drink than another, and which give their high prices to the best wines. They are not detectable by any chemical agency ; but it is the taste of these bouquets, and nothing else, which gives to our wine the value of five dollars a bottle, and to another fifty cents, when all the qualities are pre cisely the same. The second point in the nature of wines is their color. Some wines are what is called "red " and others are "white." Ports, Clarets, Burgundies are all red ; also many other wines. The red colors of these wines have been analyzed with some care, but they do not seem to exert any influence upon the system. The most important agent in them is tannic scid, or tannin, which exists in some wines to a very large extent, and which is produced the skins of the grapes used in mixing the wine. It gives an astringency to red wines which is not found in white. These also come from the skins of the grapes, and the latter 19 found in dark white wines as well as in red. The other
matters which give a character to wines are the saline compounds. These substances, which constitute the ashes of all vegetable tis sues, exist in a varying quantity in all fruits, and are found dis solved in the juices of fruits ; hence we find them remaining in wine after fermentation of the juice. The most abundant of these salts is bi-tartrate of potash (cream of tartar). Besides this, wines contain tartrate of lime, tartrate of alumina, tartrate of iron, chloride of sodium, chloride of potassium, sulphate of potash, and phosphate of alumnia. There salts occur in the proportion of from o .e to four parts in the one thousand of wine. They do not make much difference in the flavor or action of wines ; but their pi Jsen._:e is one of the surest indications of the genuineness of a Those who manufacture wines with alcohol and water, and add a certain quantity of good wine to give a flavor, do not usually add these mineral constituents, which are always the best test of s pure wine. The vine is cultivated in great perfection in France; the well-known kinds are Burgundy, Barsac, Pontae, Champagne, Claret, Sauterne, Hermitage, Cote, Rotie, Roussillon, Masden, and Frontignac, The Spanish wines are Amontillado, Sherry, Tent, Malaga, and Mountain, Alba Flora, Maderia, Malmsey, Tinto, Teneriffe or Vidonia. The wines brought from Portugal are Port, Lisbon, white and red, Bucellas, Calcavcllas, and Figueira. The German and Rhenish wines are esteemed, particularly Hock, Moselle and Neckar. Hungary produces the celebrated Tokay. Italy furnishes the sweet Lachryma Christi. Sicily exports Marsala or Bronte Madeira. The Cape of Good Hope yields three or four wines, called Cape Madeira, Cape Sherry, Cape Hock and Constantia.
Adulteration of Wines. It requires chemical analysis of so delicate a nature to detect adulterations that they cannot be applied by non-professional persons. M. de Cherville, the French chemist, however, gives the following simple test for deciding whether red wines are, or are not, artificially colored. He directs that, a small quantity of the liquid desired to be tested be poured into a glass and a bit of potash dissolved in it. If no sediment forms, and if the wine assumes a greenish hue, it has not been artificially colored ; if a violet sediment forms, the wine has been colored with elder or mulberries ; if the sediment is red, it has been colored with beet-root or Pernambuco wood ; if violet-red, with logwood ; if yellow, with poke berries ; if violet-blue, with privet berries ; and if pale violet, with sun flower. Air in the cask or bottle, taking the place of alcohol and water lost by evaporation is fatal. Hence casks must be filled from other casks as rapidly as evaporation or leakage leaves any unfilled space. The leakage of a voyage is often fatal. The temperature cf the place where wine is stored should he as even and as near an aver age of 50 degrees Fahrenheit as possible. The upper ru y..n..3 of dweirng hou,es are safer than the of r FreSt is except to strong Nt,:nes, so is excessivglie,..i, that cf cxpoFol pcsitioi s in rummer. Bottles should ah,:,y, be laid flat with their labels up so that in handling them one may know where the deposit is and disturb it as little as possible. The length of time which wines may be advantageously kept, depends mainly upon their strength, Considering this in each instance, it may be roughly stated for clarets and the light white wines, from three to ten years; for Burgundies and the heavier wines from five to thirty years; for Port, Madeira, and Sherry, an almost indefinite period.