Manufacture of Wines in the South, Part II [pp. 251-279]

MANUFACTURE OF WINES IN THE SOUJTH.
This fact becomes evident when we evaporate or distil off the
alcohol from wine. It is no longer wine-the other constituents
undergo chan,es, and putrefaction is the result. The term
"boiled wines" is a misnomer; the wine when made is not
boiled, it is the grape juice from which the wine is to be made
that is boiled, in order to concentrate the sugar and produce a
richer material to generate a greater quanitity of alcohol. The
strong, sweet wines of Spain are of this kind, in which the
production of a determinate quantity of alcohol suspends the
vinous fermentation and preserves the excess of sugar fromnt
further change. The due adjustment of the alcohol to the
sugar and the antiseptic quality of the former preventing any
further change in the latter, is the whole secret involved in the
manufacture of the wines of Madeira, Xeres and Oporto; while
the wines of France and Germany pulport to be made from the
unadulterated juice of the grape, as it comes from the vineyard.
Such may be true, but there is a large consumption of brandy
and starch sugar in the wine regions, which may be used to
strengthen the wines which are to be exported to England and
the United States. The employnment of brandy and sugar to
construct a good wine is notorious; and it may truly be said, if
these materials are omitted, the wine is weak and acid, and not
adapted to the English or American taste; but when they are
skilfully "fretted in" and judiciously proportioned, we have a
wine worthy of the highest laudation. The unrivalled Madeira,
so esteemed in South Carolina, so early introdluced-for Mr.
Peter Purry commended its virtues in 1731-and so long continued as the favorite of the state, is a compound of this description. I have already shown that 11no natural grape juice
ever contained the quantity of alcohol and sugar which is
found in Mladeira, sherry or port wine; hence, from whence
was it derived? Simply by additions made to the must previous to fermentation, or to the wine after fermentation. Both
practices are common; and so long as art can improve nature
and produce such an article as "old Madeira," the pure and
unsophisticated wines of Frarme and Germany will remain
undesirable. Aiken may choose her own standard of wine.
She can avoid both extremes. Neither make the weak and
acid wines of France and Germany, nor yet the strong and
sweet wines of Spain, PIortugal and Italy. There is a medium
which may suit all tastes, and that niedium can be reached by
science, by experiment, and by practice.
We can select methods from all the European wine makers,
and adapt them to our circumstances, to our tastes, and to our
habits. We are habitually an "ardent spirit" drinking people,
and this habit can only be cured by substituting a more moderate and pleasanter beverage than whiskey or brandy. It is
the alcohol of the wine or whliskey that charms the world, and
acetic acid cannot be substituted for it even if it be the fer
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