1892 The flowing bowl when and what to drink (1892, c1891)

COMPOSITION OF DRINKS, ETC.

60

vessels, barrels, tubs, etc., are to be removed from the cellars, and, be this impossible, the disinfection must be done there. The percentage of alcohol, as far as it is not due to blending, is in closest connection with the quantity of sugar in the must; no wine can contain more than seventeen vol. per cent, of alcohol, as with this degree the transformation of sugar into alcohol by fermenta- tion is stopped, and any surplus is caused by blending. All southern wine-growers are fond of increasing the sugar in their wines, thus, Australia produces hardly any wine below 26%. The coloring of wines offers many chances for adul- teration. Immense quantities of white wines are thus made red wines, and even liquids that can boast of no relationship to the grape-juice at all are transformed into red wines by coloring materials. Dyestuffs mainly used for this purpose are : berries from sambucus niger, sambucus ebulus, vaccinium myrtillus, ligustrum vulgaris, phytolacca decandra, the flowers of wialva arborea, althea rosea, and malva silvestris, beets, logwood and Brazilwood, cochineal, indigo, fuchsine, and other aniline colors. Of these dyestuffs the aniline colors are easiest to de- tect, while natural colors, having very great similarity to the natural dyestuff of wine, sometimes render it, even to an expert, difficult to prove their presence.