14 JULY 1866, Page 23

Wine. By James L. Denman —A pamphlet on wine by

the well known merchant, intended to enforce the superiority of " natural " wines, that is, wines unloaded with brandy and unsweetened, over port and sherry. Of these wines he holds the Greek to be the best, being the fullest-bodied of the nnfortified kinds, and less acid than the thin wines of France and Germany. Tlse taste for, those wines seems to grow slowly, but it does grow, and Mr. Denman wishes evidently to remove one frequent objection. "Respecting the apparent acidity and thin- ness of natural wine, I would say a few words only. I would not at-

/ tempt to argue that sound Vitt Ordinaire is as full-bodied as Visanto ; but it is nevertheless true, that although Visanto is the sweetest wino produced and Viii Ordinaire the most tart to the taste, yet their acidity and alcoholic strength are about equal. The simple fact, and the one upon which the whole theory and practice of the Port and Sherry mix-

ings andmessings are based is, that if wine isipenbreir feesnented, and the grapes have not been previously dried, the product =ugh° acid, or at least have an acid taste, as all the sugar ill the grape has beans turned to alcohol ; and if the grape was thoroughly ripe, the winerwill possess high natural alcoholic strength, greater or less according to the latitude in which the grape was grown. On, the other hand, if the grapes have been more or less dried, the wine will be mcme or. less, sweet and full-bodied, as it wiltcontain unfermented sugar." We will give Mr. Denman and other importers of light wises, Greek or French, Hungarian or German, ose hint which will, we believe, greatly increase the sale of their liquors. Let them invent a decanter in which their winos will keep as well as port and sherry do. At present most of 'them must be drunk the day they aro opened if they. are to be enjoyed, and in mid- dle-class families such wine costs tho householder more than port or sherry at three times the price. They want to keep wino about, not to drink a bottle a day, and till they can all the arguments in the werl& will fail to convince them that port and sherry are bad wines. The- present stoppered decanter was made for Spanish winos, and is for light wines simply an imbecility.