while le gamay yields a more abundant but
an inferior kind. These are red wines. For
white, le pineau gris, le gamay blanc, and le
fermint make the most esteemed kinds.
From le fermint comes the Hungarian Tokay.
But wines change their reputations. Thus,
Orleans was once far more prized than
Burgundy; but the see-saw of the vineyard has
now exalted Burgundy far above Orleans.
So with others of like chameleon condition.
Claret is a mere mixture of several kinds of
wine.

The chemical components of grape juice
are grape and fruit sugars, gelatinous matter
or pectin, gum, fat, wax, vegetable albumen
and vegetable gluten, tartaric acid, both free
and combined with potash as cream of tartar,
partly also combined with lime. In some
analyses have been found racemic acid, malic
acid, partly free and partly combined with
lime, tartarate of potass and alumina;
further, oxide of iron and oxide of manganese,
sulphate of potash, common salt, phosphate
of lime, magnesia, and silicic acid.
The skins, stones, and stalks all yield tannic
acid; which tannic acid, turning brown by
exposure to the atmosphere—becoming, in
fact, that Cinderella of the chemists known as
apothema—gives its brown hue to
(unadulterated) white wine. For there is no such
thing as a purely colourless wine: even the
celebrated Vino cebedino, called colourless,
is a pale yellow. This is the reason, too,
why raisins are all uniformly dark-skinned,
whether they be of purple or white grapes;
the tannic acid in their skins turning brown
by exposure to the air in the process of
drying. The purple grape has, besides this
tannic acid, a colouring matter of its own,
which is, properly, a distinct blue, but by the
action of acids is converted into a deep red or
purple. In unripe grapes saturated with
acids it is a bright red, as we all have seen;
and young wine is always brighter and more
brilliant than that which has matured. As
the grape ripens, so does the skin, or rather
the colouring matter, become more purple or
blue. The less acid the darker the skin, till
over-ripe purple grapes become positively
black. But even this deep colour gradually
changes by age as well as by exposure, and
the bright red of the young wine—due partly
to an excess of phosphoric acid—by degrees
sobers and mellows into the "tawny port"
so dear to connoisseurs: that is, the tannic
acid is converted into apothema, and with
the acid goes the ruby-like colour. In the
best Burgundy and coloured Champagne the
skins remain in the liquid from two to three
days, this is to colour them; in Médoc six
days; eight days in the French wines of the
south; and fourteen in the dark astringent
vin ordinaire of the tables d'hôte. To clear
white wines, also to make them lighter if too
dark, albumen and isinglass are used. This
is the mode by which white port wine is
obtained. In Spain they use powdered marble
for the purpose ; in other countries gypsum
and sand; also filling up any deficiency in
the casks with clay and sand. In warm
climates neither albumen nor isinglass is
used, as these, being animal substances, would
decompose too readily; as, indeed, they do
in colder climates when used in excess.
Powdered gum-arabic is substituted; dried
blood, milk and cream are also used, as well
as lime. Lime seems to be the best for the
purpose, making the wine sweeter and less
astringent, and giving it the appearance of
age. If used in excess, it turns the wine
brown. Speaking of albumen, one reason
why Burgundy is a bad keeping wine is
owing to the free use of albumen and
isinglass. Containing but little tannic acid in
the beginning, these animal substances readily
decompose, and the cask "goes to the bad"
after a very short time.

Tokay is made from grapes which have
almost dried on the vines; and all the so-
called Vin sec assumes to be made under
the like conditions. Vin de paille is from
grapes dried on straw, and Vin cotti from
boiled juice. All these processes have the
same object—namely, the evaporation of the
watery particles in the grape, thus leaving
only a rich, pure, alcoholic juice. We say
alcoholic, though, perhaps, we ought to have
said saccharine; but they are almost synonymous
terms; for the more sugar there is in
the grape, the more alcohol there will be in
the wine. One hundred and ninety-eight of
sugar gives ninety-two of alcohol; thus, if
our strong ports give sixteen per cent. of
alcohol, the grape must have had thirty-four
per cent. of sugar; which, if not impossible,
seeing that it is affirmed that even forty per
cent. of solid particles of sugar may be
obtained from ripe grapes, is, at least, an
unusual average. French and German grapes
give from seven to fifteen per cent., but the
usual figures range from thirteen to thirty.
In Holland it is only from ten to twelve.
Grape sugar is obtained by boiling the juice
with chalk to saturate the free acids, then
filtering the liquid and washing the
precipitate. The liquid is then mixed with
albumen, boiled, filtered, and evaporated,
when the crystals of sugar are deposited.

White wax is got from the skins by boiling
them in alcohol, while the stones yield four
and two-thirds per cent. of tannic acid and oil.
Thus there is most fat in those wines in
which the stones have been pressed. The
stalks, as has been said, contain also tannic
acid; but care should be taken to use only
those which are ripe and of that rich golden
brown which is so beautiful in a vineyard;
hard and green stalks would ruin the wine.
For too large a proportion of acids of any
kind hinders the wine from ripening and
keeping, as may be seen in the Rhine wines
generally, and in the acid vins ordinaires of
France and Italy.

When the grapes have ripened badly, but