Wine.

Officinal. Vinum. Vinum album Hispanicum, Lond. Dub. Vinum album Hisfanum, Edin. Sherry Wine.

Syn. Vin d'Espagne (F.), Wein (G.), Wyn (Dutch), Win (Swed.), Vino (I.), Vinode Xerez (S.), Khmur {Arab.), Bade (Pers.), Dakh ramudh (H.).

Although the London and Edinburgh Colleges have designated sherry only, yet all the generous wines are occasionally used as medicinal agents, and, therefore, we shall take a general view of the manufacture, characters, and properties of wine.

1 The gluten excites the vinous fermentation in the juice of the grape when expressed. Fabroni has shown, that it is lodged on the membranes that separate the cells of the grape; and becomes mixed with the saccharine part when the juice is expressed.

2 Russell's Natural History of Aleppo, i. 83.

3 Moore's View of Society, & c in Italy, ii. letter 62.

In the wine countries, when grapes are fully ripe, they are gathered, and immediately subjected to the press, by which the juice is separated from the skins and seeds. In some places the grapes are previously picked from the stalks, the sound being separated from all the unsound with great care1: in some they are pressed just as they are gathered from the vines; and in other places they are almost converted into raisins before they are pressed.2 The expressed juice is called must, and contains all the principles which we enumerated above as being present in the grape; these, when the vats holding the must are placed in a temperature of 70°, begin to act upon one another, the liquor becomes turbid, an intestine motion is evident in it, its temperature increases, a scum collects on its surface, and carbonic acid gas is disengaged. This is the process of vinous fermentation. In a few days its activity gradually decreases, the scum and impurities subside to the bottom; and the liquor clears, having lost its saccharine taste, and becomes wine.

It is then put into barrels, and in due time into bottles, in both of which kind of vessels the fermentation is continued, although in an imperceptible degree; nor is it altogether completed till the wine attains the utmost limits of its age, and passes into the acetous fermentation. All the principles of the must are perhaps required for the production of wine; but the saccharine matter, the gluten, and the vegetable acid, are essential; and on the proper quantity of the first in particular, and the manner in which the fermentation is conducted, depend the strength and goodness of the wine. When the sugar is in too great quantity, and not completely decomposed, or the fermentation is checked, the wine retains a sweet taste; a more proper proportion and perfect decomposition, with a brisker fermentation, render it strong and spirituous; but if the quantity of sugar be small, and at the same time there is a deficiency of tartar in the must, a thin and weak wine is produced. When it is bottled early it becomes brisk and sparkling; and it is rough and astringent when the fermentation has been conducted on the skins, particularly on those of the coloured grapes; which also gives colour to the wine; for when the juice only is fermented, white wines are produced from coloured grapes.

1 This is the case at Madeira; and also at Epernay, where the best champagne is made. In Madeira, every kind of grape which the island produces, except the malmsey and the sercial, are pressed together for making the wine which bears the name of the island.

2 The wine of Chio, which was esteemed by the ancients for its strength, sweetness, and exquisite aromatic flavour, is made from nearly dried grape6.

Wine that has been too long fermented before being put into the casks, is very apt to become sour; and frequently oxides of lead, as litharge and white lead are employed to correct the acidity. According to Fourcroy, these form a soluble triple salt, an aceto-tartrate of lead, by uniting with the acetic and tartaric acids in the wine1; which, daily experience shows, produces violent colic, and other deleterious effects on those who drink it. The fraud may be detected by means of a solution of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, as has been already explained (see Plumbum), or by the prussiate of potassa, a few drops of which will produce a whitish precipitate if lead be present. Port wine is often adulterated, and coloured with dye-stuffs. Liquid potassa detects the artificial admixtures of wines. It precipitates the natural principles of wine, green; berries of yebb, precipitate them violet; Indian wood, violet; red mulberries, violet; Brazil wood, red; beet, red; litmus, clear violet; myrtle-berries, wine-lees colour; elder-berries, bluish. But besides those articles already mentioned, both arsenic and corrosive sublimate have been used for fining wines.

Nitrous ether is sometimes employed to perfume wines.

Qualities.-Various circumstances, such as climate, soil, and the mode of conducting the fermeutation, modify the flavour and taste of wine. The odour and flavour in the more fully fermented wines, seems to depend on the vinous process, as it bears little resemblance to the natural flavour of the fruit; from which, however, in the sweet and half-fermented wines, it is immediately derived; but flavouring ingredients, as bitter almonds and orris root, are also used in the manufacturing of wines. Malaga, Frontignac, Tokay, Vino tinto, Montefiuscone, Schiras, and the Malmsey wines of the Greek islands, are sweet to the taste, and consequently the result of imperfect fermentation; Champagne, Goosebury, and all sparkling wines, owe their briskness to carbonic acid gas: Hock, Rhenish, Mayne, Barsac, Burgundy, Claret2, and Hermitage contain a certain quantity of uncombined acid, and are termed light and dry; while Marsala, Madeira, Sherry3, and Port, are dry and strong. The odour of sherry is pleasant and aromatic; the taste warm, with some degree of the agreeable bitterness of the peach kernel; the taste of port is austere and bitterish: claret is less rough, thinner, slightly acidulous, and higher flavoured; and hock acidulous. Of the common white wines, marsala is undoubtedly the strongest.