1827 Wine and spirit adulterators unmasked

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EAST INDIA MADEIRA. The character and description of this Wine, as considered the best, and bearing the highest price in the market, is, that possessed of the greatest richness and flavor, without any of that apparent tendency to acidity and want of body, by which the lower qualities of it are distinguished. The most approved of the West India Madeira Wines, though seldom purchased at so high a price, in many instances, rank, in point of quality, before those, which belong to the inferior class of East India Madeiras, and one of the frauds, therefore, committed on the Public, through the medium of the extraordinary cheap prices \ve daily see ad- vertised, is, by the substitution and sale of the ar- ticle of West India Maderia, for the finest quality of the one, on which I am now treating. The method whereby the adulteration, or rather the manufacture of a spurious imitation, of East India Madeira is performed, is, by admixing a portion of the genuine Wine, with a quantity of Vidonia, or Direct Madeira, and East India Cape ; fined, and racked bright from the lees ; the latter, though bearing a much higher price, than Cape, which has not had the benefit of a voyage, from the Cape of Good Hope to the East Indies, and thence back to London, forming a valuable in- gredient, to assist in lowering the cost, so as to enable the advertiser, to placard the composition,