1895 Mixed Drinks by Herbert W Green

mixed drinks.

115

Chemical analysis shows that in red wines there are present tannic acid and coloring matters, while in white wines there is only a trace of the foi'mer. In wine generally the principal ingredients are alcohol and water; then sugar, gum, extractive and albuminous matters;then free organic acids,such as tartaric,racemic, malic and acetic acids; and salts, such as the tartrates of potash,of lime and of magnesia,sulphate of potash, cloride ofsodium and traces of phosphate oflime; also, especially in old wines,substances imparting aroma as cenanthic and acetic ethers and other volatile odorif erous matters. In all red wines and in many others, a little iron and possibly some alumina may be found. Most of the essential dietetic and therapeutic properties of wine depend upon the alcohol, sugar and free acids, especially tartaric acid, contained in it. We have before us the statistical tables of Bence Jones and others showing the percentage of alcohol in various wines. Each of these analysts gives a range of from one to nine per cent, between their minimum and maximum figures. We name the lowest and highest figures any of them have offered, leaving it to the reader, or the sampler of wine, to judge of the actual per cent, of alcohol or stimulating substance that may practically he found in any wine named: