WINE MANUFACTURE. Wine la the result of the fermentation of certain saccharine fluids. either existing naturally in the juices of plants, or artificially blended together. The natural juices susceptible of fermentation are found either in the roots of plants, such as the parsnip • and beet-mot: extracted from the stem, as in the birch and cocoa-palm ; expressed from the leaves, as in the grape-vine ; obtained from the spathe, as of the .Sagus rinVe7a, the Phu nix dactglifera, and other palms ; and in the mature or immature fruits of many well known plants, such as gooseberries, currants, and, above all, the grape, to the fermented juice of which the term wine is alwaye understood to be applied when used absolutely. Though alcohol is present in all wines, yet many other principles exist in them ; the number of which, and the manner in which they are blended together, as well as their relative proportion, give to different wines their die tinctive rroperties.
The 1 ilia n nifera, the only species which yields the most esteemed wine, hail, from receiving the long-continued attention and culture of men, a very extensive geographical range. [Vim in NAT. 141sT. Div.] From 54° or almost 55• N lat. to 45' 8. lat., the vine may be found ; but it by no mania yields a grape fit for fermenting into a sound good wine In all the Intermediate apace. Up to the 51st degree of N. hat. the preparation of this beverage is conducted with varioue degrees of success and diversities In the qualities of the wises. in the hotter countries alone are the rich sweet wines, often called in technical language Vint de Liqueurs, prepared, an in thole only is so much sugar prevent as to allow the fermentation to furnish sufficient of the vinous principles to the product, when the fermentation ceases from the leaven being all expended. The Muscat gropa which in the south of France yields the rich sweet wines termed Frontignan, Lund, and ltiveiialtes, on the Rhine only ripens to furnish a grape for the table or dessert. Nor does the same latitude always permit the grape to acquire the perfection requisite for good wine. The isothermal lines end the degree of humidity, especially the clearness or cloudiness of the atmosphere, have more Influence. Thus In France the beneficial cultivation of the vine scarcely extends on the western side higher than 4S", but the boundary-line mounts upwards towards the east t11 we find the most renowned of the Rhine wince produced between 50° and 51°. The longitude of Devonshire is nearly that of the province of Spain which yields the finest sherries ; and it is not alone the difference of 14 degrees of latitude which unfits the south of England for ripening a grape suitable for wine, since that portion of the Rhine which lies between ()dikes end Dusseldorf, which produces good wine, has precisely the same latitude ; but the greater humidity and cloudiness of the atmosphere In the south-west of England, by intercepting the sun's rays, prevent the full ripening of the grape ; for the same reason, Holland scarcely produces grapes possessing sugar enough to yield wine (Mulder); and the observations of Dr. Dalibeny have proved that the ripening of fruits depends more on the illumi nating rays than on the allorifie or chemical rays. The specious levee held out by some writers that the grape might be cultivated in England so as to yield wine, would soon be dissipated by any extensive trials, which it is to be desired may never be made. (Barton's ' Lecture on the Geography of Plants;' and Watson, ' Geographical Distribution of Briti.h Planta') But different climates. though they may equally permit the grape to ripen, yet impress on it peculiarities easily distinguishable in the wines produced by the same kind of grape. Thus the flock grapes yield a kind of wine possessed of distinct qualities when grown along the Main or Rhine ; the same sort of grapes, grown near Lisbon. yield Bucelhui, which only retains some of the peculiarities of the original ; the same grapes at the Cape of Good Hope yield what is termed Cape Hock, scarcely bearing any resemblance to the trite Rhenish ; while the &mid of Madeira, produced by the same sort of grapes, though a delicious wine, has scarcely a quality, except durability, like that of the original. Some local influences produce effects which are alike inexplicable and Mimi. table. These, though generally attributed to the soil, are not always or solely owing to its composition and qualities. in some instances the soil is the main cause of difference, as seen in the Constantia of the Cape. The °Innate there is most favourable to the growth of the vine, yet iu one small space ouly is a tolerable wine produced, the two con tiguous farms of the Great and Little Constantia yielding, the former the red sweet wine, the latter the white Constantia : the soil on which they grow is decomposed sandstone. Where no appreciable difference
of soil can be pointed out, differences arise from the cultivation of a different kind of grape. It is stated, on the authority of Meyen (' Pflanzen-Geographie, p. 369 of English translation, published by the Ray Society), that there are instances "of the same variety of vine being planted on the side of a hilt or mountain, and the wine which is the produce of the grapes from the highest parts of the mountain will differ essentially from the wine which is the produce of the grapes of the lower part of the mountain. The wines known by the name et Johannisberger and Itudeeheiiner in Germany are the produce of vines growing close together, and resembling each other in external cite raetera. The vineyards also that produce the Lciatenwein, Wars. burger, and Stainwein are very near to each other. It is probable that this difference is owing to the composition of the soil." 'Ibis is not altogether correct. Johannisberg is only 150 feet above the level of the Rhine, and it is quite certain that the produce of the summit, close to the castle or :Seldom of Johannisberg, is of a quality vastly superior to the produce of the place called Johannisbergerhold, not from any peculiar or insurmountable cause, but because the former, belonging to Prince Metternich (and the adjacent parts to some other large proprietors), can receive an amount of careful and skilful treat ment, which the other, being divided among a number of small pro prietors, never does. This subdivision is the cause of an animal loss of many thousands of pounds. (Brenner, ' Weinbau in Slid Deana land. Dritte Heft,' p. 113.) The grape cultivated in both places is the little Riesling (Der Kleine Medina of some, Miner Rieeling of others ; the ri is rinifera put?lla of Bobo and Metzger Wein mill Tafeltrauben der Deutschen Weinberge and Oiirten, Heft viii, t. 46); but in the vineyard of Prince Metternich and the other great pro prietors three gatherings of the grapes are made as they reach maturity, and other measures are adopted to ensure a produce of the highest excellence. Besides the protection of the castle wall, the whole has since 1824 been surrounded with a stone wall 10 feet high. This greatly promotes the steady progress to maturity of the grapes by securing a quiescent state of the air, which is known to be extremely beneficial, and which, when imitated on a small scale in this country by surrounding a bunch of grapes with a 'muslin bag, forwards its ripening very much. The wine of Luginaland and the Liebfrauenniiich owo their superiority over that of the neighbouring vineyards to the protection of the town-wall of Worms. (Bronner, Heft ii., pp. 18-20.) The advantage of protection against agitation of the air is so well understood in the Rheingau, that the belts of vineyards which clothe the height of I lochheirn bring very different prices, according to their position. One morgen, close to the bed of the river Maki, brings in the market two thousand florins i • a higher morgen brings one thousand florins ; and one at the summlt only five hundred. (Brenner, iii., p. 14.) The genguostic character of the soil of Johannisberg is argil laceous schist, with a very moderate proportion of mica, and in one place passes into a reddish quartz, which is very hard, and undergoes but slowly any decomposition. This is overlaid with alluvial and alluvial deposits in most places except the south-west side. From these and ether circumstances it follows that the soil is of a very diversified character. (Bronner, iii., p. 116.) The exposure is south west, with a slope of from ten to fifteen degrees. Rudesheint is well protected by its natural position and a lofty forest called Niederwald it is much steeper, so that the earth can be kept from being washed down only by numerous terraces, between which the air is as hot as in a conservatory. The soil is composed of stones of a dark colour, which radiate heat during the night to such a degree, that the grapes are surrounded by almost a southern climate. The grape most com mon, at least in the old vineyards, is the Orl ans ( Vial v. aurcielna B. u. M., Heft x., t. ts0), which has the property, in this stony and hot ground, of continuing productive until the age of fifty or more, which is not the case with any other grape. But as it only gives a good wine in very favourable years, and as the wine from the Riesling grape brings so high a price, the new vineyards are mostly planted with the Riesling : the propriety of this substitution is very doubtful. (Brenner, iii., 136.1 These facts are sufficient to account for the differences between the Johanuisberger and Rudesheimer wines.