Wine
the fermented juice of the grape. Freshly gathered grapes are thrown into a vat and pressed, frequently by trampling on them. The juice or must is drawn off and allowed to stand. Fermentation, a process carried on by a yeast plant present in the must, sets in at once. The must "works" for a few days, being stirred up from day to day to reexcite the fermentation. Sugar is present in all grape juice and is changed by fermentation into alcohol. If the sugar be changed wholly to alcohol we have a "dry" wine free from sweetness. If the wine be bottled before fermentation is complete a "sparkling" wine is produced. As wine ferments sediment is formed, and the wine is drawn off repeatedly until judged ready for bottles or casks.
The same kind of grape produces very different wines in different localities for no known reason. Certain celebrated vine-yards of the Rhine a few acres in extent yield wine of superior quality. Wines are supposed to improve with age. The vintages of different years differ. The vintage of 1846 is celebrated. The vintage of 1856 was considered wretched. The red wines and white wines owe their names to the color of the grapes from which they are made. Most wines take their names from the vineyard, district, or town from which they are obtained. "Port" is a shortened form of Portugal; "sherry" is the English equivalent of Xeres; "hock" is for Hocheimer, etc.
The amount of alcohol in wine varies according to the kind of wine, but may be placed at from nine to twenty-four per cent in the following order, the last named containing the largest percentage of alcohol: moselle, claret, Rhine wine, burgundy, champagne, sherry, madeira, and port.
The great wine-producing countries of the world surround the Mediterranean. A belt of wine-producing countries in the southern hemisphere includes Peru, Argentina, Cape Colony, and the Australian colonies. American grapes are grown chiefly for table use, but the Ohio Valley produces considerable Catawaba wine, and California wines are an important product of that state.
The figures of the world's wine crop for 1908, as compiled by the Italian trade, were:
| Country. | Gallons. |
| United States | 40,000,000 |
| Italy | 1,495,126,400 |
| France | 1,744,255,207 |
| Germany | 50,160,000 |
| Austria | 92,400,000 |
| Hungary | 81,400,000 |
| Spain | 464,640,000 |
| Portugal | 118,800,000 |
| Switzerland | 23,760,000 |
| Russia | 68,640,000 |
| Mexico | 500,000 |
| Argentina | 35,000,000 |
| Chile | 55,000,000 |
| Brazil | 8,000,000 |
| Bolivia | 650,000 |
| Cape Colony | 5,000,000 |
| Corsica | 6,654,800 |
| Algeria | 227,072,400 |
| Tunis | 7,920,000 |
| Azores, Canaries, and Madeira | 3,960,000 |
| Luxemburg | 2,772,000 |
| Turkey | 39,600,000 |
| Greece | 32,000,000 |
| Bulgaria | 50,000,000 |
| Servia | 10,000,000 |
| Roumania | 68,740,000 |
| Persia | 450,000 |
| Peru | 2,400,000 |
| Uruguay | 2,300,000 |
| Australia | 7,000,000 |
| Total | 4,744,200,807 |
Germany owes its prominence in the production of wine almost wholly to the valley of the Rhine and its tributaries. Greece grows a smaller grape, for an account of which see CURRANT. The wines of Portugal are celebrated, but the area under vines is necessarily limited. Most of its wine is of a cheap quality, and is made for home use. The better grades are shipped in bottles or casks to all parts of the world. Some idea of the enormous commerce in wines may be formed from the importation of London alone, which amounts to 17,000,000 gallons a year. See Champagne; Burgundy; Sherry; Fermentation; Cream Of Tartar; Grapes; Hail