ORIGIN, NATURE, AND USE OF `VINE.* THE work before us

is certainly the most comprehensive in our own language on the subject of which it treats, probably more exhaustive than any to be found in other languages ; and as the subject is one which cannot be devoid of interest to a large number of our readers, we will endeavour to lay before them such an outline of its contents as will enable them to form an idea of what wine really is ; and what constitutes the great differences between the products obtained from various countries. We confess that there is some difficulty in the task, arising not from any lack of materials, but from the limited space allowed for its discussion. Wine, it is well known, is the product of the fermentation of the grape, and no alcoholic fluid can be fairly termed " wine" which is not so produced. Geological evidence proves that the grape in its wild state existed in Germany, Bohemia, and Tuscany during the tertiary period, and impressions of the fossil leaves of the vine and of its seeds are there found. At the present time, in the northern hemisphere, the limits of the culture of the vine in Europe and Asia may be thus given :—

" The polar limit commences north of the Azores, keeps to the south of England, without touching that country, enters France at Vannes, in Bi *Raga°, runs upon Maziers, and goes thence past Alencon and Beau- vais. It then runs more northward, including a portion of Rhenish Prussia, passing to the north of Thuringia and the valley of the Saale to the north of Saxony, particularly of Dresden, and then runs across the Carpathians, through South Russia, almost in a straight line to the northern end of the Caspian Sea. Thence it proceeds in a straight line to the Amcor, and somewhat to the north of the southern bends of that river ending in the Pacific Ocean. The equatorial limit begins near the Equator in the Atlantic Ocean, and includes the Canary Islands and all the islands lying near the African and Spanish coast. It then enters Africa at about the 30th degree of northern latitude, and running nearly upon, though a little to the north of that degree, it leaves Africa at the middle of the Isthmus of Suez ; runs across Arabia and the Persian Sea, enters India about the 25th degree of northern latitude, and then describes a loop running downwards in Hindostan itself nearly parallel to its sea borders ; so that the whole interior of Hin- dostan is comprised in it, while the whole sea-board is excluded. It then passes again to the north, excluding all the land within several hundred miles from the sea-board, and passes into China, to terminate at the eastern end of it, on the 27th degree of northern latitude."

The vine will grow both to the north and south of these limits, but to the north it never ripens unless in exceptional situations ; to the south, it becomes an evergreen, and loses its best qualities. It will be observed that the limits do not coincide with any isothermal lines, for the vine does not require a very high average, but a high summer heat, and thus it may prosper in many places whose mean temperature is far below that of England.

There are very many varieties of the cultivated vine, but each preserves its main character wherever it can produce fruit. The vine determines the growth or character of the wine, though each variety requires peculiar circumstances for its full development. The Riessling grape, whether grown on the Rhine, in the Tyrol, in Croatia, or at the Cape, will always recall the qualities of the wine of the Rhine ; and, on the other hand, if the Chateau Lafitte were planted with Gamay or Gouais, instead of Carbenet, a detectable wine would be produced, and " thus one should never say wine of Burgundy, but wine of Pineau, from Bungundy ; one should not speak of Bordeaux wine, but of wine of Carbenet, from Bordeaux."

The time of vintage and the process of vinification are fully discussed ; in some districts the grapes are considered ripe when they have attained their greatest volume, which is not the most suitable time, if the object be to produce natural wines,—that is, wines unplastered and unmixed with additional spirit ; in the most celebrated of the white-wine vineyards the grapes are allowed to hang until they attain their maximum sweetness and maturity, and are commencing to pass into the state of sweet-rot. In making red wine, the production of a given colour is a domi- nant condition, and this can only be attained by the use of grapes at a certain stage of ripeness short of the maximum. Champagne grapes are not permitted to attain the highest maturity, because it is conventional that the effervescing wines of that country shall not possess the slightest tint of redness, which the fully-ripe Pineau, or plant dore, always gives; and the wines of Burgundy are vint- aged a little early because the fully-ripe Pineau, when fermented with the husks, yields wine with a somewhat tawny-red colour.

The mode of cutting grapes.in different countries, of removing the stalks, mashing and crushing, separating and fermenting the juice are described in such detail as to satisfy the most inquisitive

* A Treatise on the Origin, Nature, and Varieties of Wine. By J. L. W. Thudichum, BI.D., and August Dupre, Ph.D. London and New York: Macmillan and Co.

reader. One fact we may state here not known to everyone, namely, that although grapes are essential for the production of red wine, yet white wine is frequently produced from black grapes ; the colouring matter of the black grape being usually confined to the husk. There has within the last few years been proposed a method of increasing the quantity of wine yielded by grapes. As the results obtained appear somewhat startling, it may be well that we should give an outline of it. M. Petiot—and the process is called after his name—caused a quantity of black grapes, which by press- ing would have given 60 hectolitres of wine, to be crushed so that

45 hectolitres of the juice were collected ; this was mixed with an equal quantity of sugar-solution, containing the same amount of sugar as the must. To the pulp of the grapes which remained behind 50 hectolitres of sugar-solution were added ; and after fermentation, 50 hectolitres of wine were drawn off. The murk was afterwards again twice exhausted with a sugar-solution ; and lastly, the pressed murk was subjected to the action of the same. These solutions were all fermented and converted into

wine. From a quantity of grapes which, according to the ordinary proceeding, would have yielded but 60 hectolitres of red wine, there were obtained by the aid of 240 hectolitres of sugar solu- tion as much as 285 hectolitres of wine,—namely, 90 of white, and 195 of red wine; and it was stated by Petiot to be " wine in the full sense of the word." In 1855 the two well-known chemists,

Thenard, Pere et fils, neighbours of Petiot, treated thus the whole

of their vintage produce, and from a quantity of grapes which would have ordinarily given them 500 hectolitres of wine, 2,000 hectolitres were obtained.

From these experiments it must be concluded that much is con- tained in the grapes which is not extracted with the must, but

which can afterwards be removed by the action of a sugar-solu- tion, and converted into wine. It was found by Petiot that in 1854 the third infusion with the sugar-solution was most highly coloured, but in 1855 the whole of the colour was exhausted by two infusions. The new wine is said to be less acid, more drink- able, and to possess more bouquet than wine made directly from the grape-juice ; and to have greater power of remaining good under adverse circumstances, such as warmth and exposure. The following quotation from the work before us gives a summary of the character of these wines :—" The best grapes or finest growths,

when treated according to Petiot's process, yield the greatest advantages, for that which remains best to the very end of the operation is the bouquet."

We cannot, without much further proof of the value of this process, quite endorse the above remarks as to the qualities of the

wine thus made. If it is a really good wine, why, since 1852, have not all growers adopted it, seeing that its advantages would be so immense? How can the white wine made by the addition of an equal amount of sugar-solution to the grape-juice, be equal to that made without any such addition ? It can be only a mixture of

white wine and diluted spirit ; for nothing is added but sugar and water, and nothing further extracted by the solution. With regard to the red wine—can it fairly be called wine at all ?—

must it not be an alcoholic liquid, with the addition of only a few of the normal constituents of true red wine ? Has it much more relation to wine than British brandy to true Cognac? It must, we think, be regarded as a cheap alcoholic drink rather than a

true wine.

Another process we must allude to, which is the so-called " plastering " of wines, so very common in Spain and Portugal and the south of France. This is effected by adding plaster-of- paris to the grape-juice, or to the grapes before they are crushed. After detailing many experiments made for the purpose of testing this process, our authors make the following statement :-

"It has beeu presumed that this process must be of use, and we therefore think it unsafe to draw the conclusion from our experiments, which naturally suggests itself, viz., that plastering is of necessity only hurtful and disadvantageous to the wine and the producer. But the result of our analysis is unquestionable, namely, that the ordinarily stated object of the practice, viz., that it withdraws water, and thereby effects condensation of the 'must,' is not the real object."

Perhaps the plaster may cause the precipitation of some albu- minous matters, which would cause the wine to undergo change ; it certainly removes the tartaric acid, and leaves in its place sulphate of potassium in the wine.

The Chemistry of Wines occupies• a fourth part of the work, the substanceof which may be thus summed up. Besides water, which in wine, as in all the other fluids we drink, constitutes the great bulk, we find alcohol, the per-tentage of which in different wines varies from about 7 to 20. We speak' of absolute alcohol, not the diluted or proof spirit of the Excise, which is rather more than half water. This alcohol is derived from the sugar of the juice or must, and, therefore, the richer the grape is in sugar the stronger the wine. There is, however, a limit to this, as the presence of more than a certain per-tentage of alcohol arrests further fer- mentation. The artificial addition of spirit, or the fortifying of wines, also arrests fermentation, and leaves free sugar. It is a very common opinion that alcohol does not exist as such in wine, but in some peculiar or modified state, rendering it less noxious to the system ; our authors, however, have clearly shown this to be an error. Alcohol holds very tenaciously oily and other matters derived from the substances from which it has been distilled, and hence, when added to wine, is apt to give an altered taste.

The principal acid contained in grape-juice and wines is tartaric acid, but others, as malic and dannic acids, are present ; some acids are found iu wine, but not in the grape, as acetic, formic, proprionic, butyric, and cenanthic acids. As the tartaric acid exists chiefly as cream of tartar, a large portion becomes deposited in the form of crust or argol, more especially when wines are fortified by the addition of brandy, which renders the acid tartrate insoluble.

Sugar is an important element of the juice of the grape, but in f ully fermented wines there is seldom more than} per cent. left ; in forti- fied and liquor wines it may vary from 2 to 20 per cent. It must be remembered that grape sugars, of which there are two varieties, differ somewhat from cane sugar.

Allied to sugar, as far as taste is concerned, is glycerine, which our authors prove to be contained in all wines, and to be produced during fermentation ; its amount is difficult to determine, and no doubt varies with the nature of the grape, the character of the fermentation, and the age of the wine. The fact of the existence of this principle is of interest, as we can now understand how a sweetness may be imparted to wine which is practically free from sugar.

Wines contain ethers. One, termed cenanthic ether, pervades all wines, and although it forms no more than a forty-thousandth part, it gives the vinous odour and flavour which distinguishes wine from other alcoholic fluids. No one hesitates to call port, sherry, claret, and hock all equally wines, though they differ so com- pletely from each other in every other respect. Other ethers, as. tartaric, butyric, and acetic ether, give the peculiar bouquets to. individual wines ; these latter are produced by the long-continued action of the acids upon the alcohols of the wine ; the bouquet, therefore, becomes augmented with age, and the more the acidulous salts contained in wine when first made, the more the ether subsequently produced ; and it is a well-known fact that fortified wines, as port and sherry, from which most of these salts have been re- moved, do not acquire from age the bouquet of the natural wines.

The last constituents of wine which we have space to speak of are- the colouring matters ; in natural wines these are derived chiefly from the husks, partly from the oxidation of the tannin, and so- called extractives of the grape. Some wines, as Moselle and. Champagne, are almost colourless ; some, as Sauternes, yellow ; others, as Claret and Burgundy, of different hues of red ; a change or darkening by oxidation is often observed when light wines, as Hock, Sauterne, and Hungarian wines, if bottled too soon, are exposed to the air; possibly this may often arise from the pre- sence of a fungus. It should be known that an artificial colour and odour is frequently given to wines ; to colour the black, cherry, bilberry, and elderberry juice, as likewise logwood and Brazil wood, are frequently added ; to give odour, the elderberry flowers, as in the case of Moselle. Brown sherry and brandy differ from the pale varieties, simply from the presence of burnt sugar in the former.

Having passed in review some of the more important chapters, we will now express our opinion of the work as a whole. To most readers, we imagine, its perusal will appear tedious ; to many, parts of it will be devoid of interest ; and to many much will be unintelli- gible. To the British reader who lives beyond the northern limit of the grape cultivation, for whom, we presume, the book is chiefly intended, the vast details as to the different varieties of vines adapted for making wine, their respective excellencies and defects, the minute description of the methods of growing them, and the peculiarities of the soils adapted for each, will seem to be unneces- sarily dwelt upon.

Those not fully up to the chemistry of the day will find no alight difficulty in mastering the part devoted to the chemistry of wines, and we cannot but protest against the introduction of much which is entirely out of place ; and to justify our assertion, we will give an example. Can it be thought desirable, for the- sake of proving the amount and character of the sugar contained, in grapes, that many pages should be occupied with an account.

of the nature of polarized and circularly polarized light, and a minute description and explanation of almost every instrument which has been employed for this purpose ? Should not the reader have been referred, if necessary, to some work on physics ? An extension of the same principle would have involved a com- plete work on chemistry as a preliminary to the discussion of the various other constituents of wine. Although the chemistry of wine is so elaborately treated, we must not for a moment suppose that we can as yet by analysis discover those minute differences which distinguish a superior from an inferior wine. The taste and smell, or bouquet, as it is termed, are required to enable us to test the true value or finesse, a property which separates the wines of different growths from one another.

The greater portion of the work is devoted to an account of the wines of different countries and districts ; the names of all the pro- prietors ; the amount of land cultivated by each ; the average quan- tity of the produce ; the special modes of training the vines ; the species of grapes made use of ; the character of the soil, sometimes even the wages of the labourers ; such matters may be of impor- tance to the growers and merchants of wines, but cannot afford much interest to the general reader.

On the outside of the book the title includes the use of wine. However, we do not find any mention of its value as a dietetic or medicinal agent in the work itself. We should have hailed with delight an exposition of the effects of different wines upon the human frame ; of the causes which make a genuine Bordeaux so wholesome, and Burgundy so treacherous a wine, and of the action of the different ethers, which probably impart to different wines their peculiar properties. In this, however, we are much disappointed in finding no allusion made, more especially as one, at least, of the authors we should think very competent to deal with the subject.

Notwithstanding this slightly adverse criticism, we have no hesitation in recommending the book highly to all who may desire a thorough knowledge in any department of the subjects treated of. The work is one which must have cost the authors (men of well-known standing and ability) an immense amount of labour and time ; and we trust the reception of the work will be such as to prove that their labours have been fully appreciated.

We should add that the volume is extremely well got up, and illustrated by many good woodcuts.