Wine
a spirituous liquor produced by fermentation from vegetable substances containing saccharine matter. There are a great many vegetable substances from WINE which, by this process, wine may be produced, such as apples, pears, currants, elderberries, and others; but unless otherwise expressed, the term is always used to indicate the fermented juice of the fruit of the common vine.
The history of the vine and its product goes back to the very earliest times of which there is any record, and it may almost be said that its use is coeval with the existence of man. In a very early part of the Mosaic record it is said, "Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and was drunken" (Gen. ix: 20); and throughout the whole of the Old Testament narrative, and in the prophetical books, there are frequent references to the use of wine and its effects. In mythological times Bacchus or Dionysos, the son of Zeus and Semele, is known as the god of wine, and the early Greek poets have sung its praises.
Homer speaks of wine in its 11th year; Horace commends wine which was of equal age with himself; and Pliny, who devotes to the subject an entire book of his work on natural history, mentions some which he had tasted which was 200 years old. In more modern times the culture of the vine has been a matter of careful study and anxious observation, and so important has become everything connected with its proper growth and propagation and the most advantageous use of its fruit that the published works on the subject are said to number no fewer than 600.
In wine producing countries the cultivation of the vine is as much a branch of national industry as that of wheat or other food producers is in others. The soils which are found to be suitable for its growth are very various in quality, but it thrives best along the borders of rivers or in places where a constant supply of water can easily reach its roots, as along the Rhine valley or in the paludial districts of the Gironde. It is usually propagated, not by seed, which takes five or six years before a seedling begins to bear, but by means of eyes cut from vines and planted in open beds and vineyards, or by planting cut canes which have been obtained from plants of the previous year, and which are usually not interfered with for three years after being put in the ground. The plants are placed in parallel lines, about a yard apart from each other, while the single are removed from each other about the same interval.
When the grapes are ripe they are collected and transformed into wine with no unnecessary delay. White grapes are crushed and pressed, and the juice, freed from stalks and husks, is put into clean WINEBRENNER barrels and allowed to ferment in a cellar or other temperate place. Black grapes, which are to yield red wine are crushed, put into vats, juice, husks, and all, and allowed to ferment till the wine is completed, and has extracted the coloring matter. The wine is then drawn off, the murk pressed, and the united products put into barrels. The process of fermentation, on which the peculiar property of the extracted liquor depends, proceeds spontaneously after the grapes have been crushed and the liquor extracted, and its action is to convert the sugar contained in the fruit into alcohol and carbonic acid. Effervescent wines, such as champagne, are bottled, before the fermentation is quite complete, and in that way a portion of the carbonic acid which would otherwise have escaped is forcibly retained and dissolved in the wine. The amount of alcohol contained in the wine varies in different sorts. In the stronger ports and sherries it amounts to from 16 to 25 per cent.; in hock, claret, and other light wines from 7 per cent. The greater part of the wines having more than 13 per cent. of alcohol (i. e., 26 degrees of proof spirit) may be assumed to be brandied or fortified with spirit.
The obscure process of fermentation, by which the sugar of grape juice juice is changed into alcohol, has been the subject of a vast amount of investigation by many eminent investigators, the last and greatest of whom is Pasteur, who published a most valuable work, "Studies of the Vine" (2d ed. 1873). The change is induced by a minute fungoid organism, Mycoderma vini, and chemically it consists in transforming 105.4 parts of grape sugar (glucose) into alcohol 51.1 parts, carbonic acid 49.4, succinic acid 0.7, glycerine 3.2, and yeast matter 1.0.
With these there are also developed minute portions of fusel oil and ether, to which is due the aroma or bouquet of the wine. These ethers develop and interact while the wine is maturing, and proper preservation of wine is a matter of the utmost importance. Other changes also occur during ripening. The acid tartrate of potash contained in the juice separates and forms a crust of argol; and frequently, especially with light wines, acid fermentation ensues, and the wine becomes sour. The acid fermentation is caused by a fungus, Mycoderma aceti, or by oxidation of alcohol by exposure.
Other diseases of wine are due to parasitic and other growths, which have been traced by Pasteur.